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rw175

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 02:19:05 pm


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Joined: 06 Jan 2007
Posts: 106
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I've been thinking about how large the new terminal is since I was there twice over the weekend. It's a beautiful facility that, I think, could one day support a hub if an airline were interested. It's obviously built with future increases in passengers in mind. What's going to be interesting to me in the short term, however, is how empty it's often going to be. Sure, there will always be people running around and there are peak travel times of the day. At the current terminal, however, I sometimes feel like I'm one of only a few people there except at those peak times of the day. When operations shift to the new terminal, I can only imagine how weird it's going to feel walking around the new terminal when it's not busy.

No specific point here. Just rambling.

Fly RW

Indy

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 03:31:51 pm

Indy
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Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

One of the quirky things to me is the escalator configuration. Twice as many leading you out as leading you in. The other is how they painted themselves into a corner when it comes to customs/immigration. It guarantees they can never process more than 400 passengers in an hour. Twenty years down the road they are still limited to 400 passengers an hour. It doesn't seem that it was designed in a way to allow them to ever expand it.

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rw175

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:21:05 am


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Joined: 06 Jan 2007
Posts: 106
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I just remembered something else odd. Did anyone else notice the gate displays? I noticed that on flights to hubs where the same flight number would continue on to another destination, it would display the final destination prominently on top in large letters and the actual destination in tiny letters below. For example, at one of the Delta gates, the destination said Blountville in large letters, and in tiny letters below, it said Cincinnati. Same for Northwest. It said Edmonton in the big letters, and Minneapolis in the small letters, Newark in big letters, Detroit in small letters, and for American, Salt Lake City in big letters, Dallas in little letters. If this is how the displays are going to be, I can only imagine how confused novice fliers are going to be.

Fly RW

Indy

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:28:11 am

Indy
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Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

It is probably how they are going to do it. And yes I can see if being confusing especially for the type of people that do face plants at the end of moving walkways because they aren't paying attention to where they are going Smile

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wanderer

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 10:20:03 pm


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Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 142
Location: IND

I did not realize that. That will be a true IND nightmare (it seems like too many of our travelers are of the clueless variety. Razz

I am sure it can be reprogrammed.

duck

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 05:56:54 am


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Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Posts: 28
Location: Indianapolis

I thought the security measures to be quite advanced at the new terminal. I think things that were only conceptual before were actually implemented at this facility. To begin with, as one entered the security area there were keypads on the walls next to a retractable door. The door can extend to a closed position along tracks in the celling and the floor. There were two others like these able to seal off the two other exits. They are hidden in the walls and I assume everyone would not notice them being there. One or both of the entire security areas can be locked down as quickly as those doors can close. Additionally, there are two more that can separate the two concourses from the terminal. Another very interesting thing is the doors to the jet bridges. To make them stay open the door has a magnet that is attached to a similar magnetic device on the floor. If the magnet is turned off, the door will close and lock. This is so all jet bridge doors can be sealed at the same time. To open them there is a keypad and a biometric reader, a little pad where you put your index finger for it to scan. There are also these blue lights by every jet bridge, emergency exit, and emergency containment door, these would indicate a security breach. This is an incredibly advanced airport, not only in situational awareness, with cameras everywhere monitored in a secured location, but also in the sheer response time the building is capable of. I know of a few major corporations and government buildings that can lock down all exterior doors in a push of a button, but I know of no public building that can actually segregate sections and go into a full lock down situation.

Indy

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 02:01:29 pm

Indy
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Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Oh the doors by the concourses were for security? I thought perhaps those were fire doors. Security works as well I guess Smile

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Boofer

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:02:52 pm

Boofer
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Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

Indy wrote:

One of the quirky things to me is the escalator configuration. Twice as many leading you out as leading you in. The other is how they painted themselves into a corner when it comes to customs/immigration. It guarantees they can never process more than 400 passengers in an hour. Twenty years down the road they are still limited to 400 passengers an hour. It doesn't seem that it was designed in a way to allow them to ever expand it.

With only 2 int'l gates, it's not likely that they'd ever need to process more than 400 pax per hour. And besides, with a 3-4 hour turnaround for an int'l flight, you've still got a good chance of having 6 to 10 international flights per day that can be comfortably handled by this facility. Do you really think that IND will see more int'l service than that within the lifespan of this terminal? It's also not to say that they couldn't expand it the hard way later, by building another facility adjacent to it that feeds into the same corridor system - much like ATL's 2-sided customs hall in Terminal E.

Can I get a peanut crumb with that thimble of Coke?

Boofer

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:04:00 pm

Boofer
Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

rw175 wrote:

I've been thinking about how large the new terminal is since I was there twice over the weekend. It's a beautiful facility that, I think, could one day support a hub if an airline were interested. It's obviously built with future increases in passengers in mind. What's going to be interesting to me in the short term, however, is how empty it's often going to be. Sure, there will always be people running around and there are peak travel times of the day. At the current terminal, however, I sometimes feel like I'm one of only a few people there except at those peak times of the day. When operations shift to the new terminal, I can only imagine how weird it's going to feel walking around the new terminal when it's not busy.

No specific point here. Just rambling.


Man, I've been stuck at ATL, DTW, CVG, IAH, and IAD between flight banks, and it has seemed more deserted than the slowest times at IND.

Can I get a peanut crumb with that thimble of Coke?

Indy

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 11:21:37 pm

Indy
Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

IND international arrivals will be ok as long as the flights are staggered. It will be a nightmare anytime two flights come in within 20 or 30 minutes of each other. Especially larger jets. Normally that isn't a problem. Imagine 20 years down the road and we have BA service to LHR and LH service to FRA. Imagine one airline having a flight delay and getting two widebody jets arriving within minutes of each other. It would be enough to make anyone want to avoid ever flying into IND again. Unfortunately we can predict the size of the Indianapolis market 20 years down the road. We can't predict the health of the airline industry and we can't predict the health of the economy.

There is a best case scenario. That being we have long haul service to a European hub and an Asian hub as well as service to vacation destinations like CUN and other Caribbean locations. That provides a nice variety when it comes to international service and would keep arrivals staggered nicely.

There are two worst case scenarios. One is that we never get anything beyond this Saturday only service to CUN and maybe even lose it. The other worst case scenario is that we become a popular international gateway because of the short taxi times and easy connections but have to turn airlines away because our customs station is too small and can't be expanded and then maybe lose existing international service as a result because airlines are frustrated with endless customer complaints due to slow turn around time.

Ideally we'd like that single European and Asian flight with a mix of Caribbean flights and the occasional charters. Maybe we can be to ORD what Sanford/Orlando is to MCO.

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