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95-486: Charlotte Douglas International Airport ( IATA : CLT , ICAO : KCLT , FAA LID : CLT ) is an international airport serving Charlotte , North Carolina , United States , located roughly 6 miles (9.7 km) west of the city's central business district. Charlotte Douglas is the primary airport for commercial and military use in the Charlotte metropolitan area . Operated by the city of Charlotte's aviation department,

190-410: A University of Michigan study of 80,000 consumers' expectations and preferences, the major US airlines ranked last among all the industries surveyed. In 2009, the airlines have moved up to being one point ahead of Cable & Satellite TV and the newspaper industry (though results for all industries were not available at the time of this writing). In 2011 Congress finally responded to repeated calls for

285-692: A few U.S. airlines that made a profit during the sharp downturn in airline travel following the September 11, 2001 attacks. For many years, analysts had predicted that JetBlue's growth rate would become unsustainable. Despite this, the airline continued to add planes and routes to the fleet at a brisk pace. JetBlue is one of the largest airlines in the Northeast United States." Various proposals have been made by labor unions, former management and industry analysts, including federal price controls and mandated routes served by major airlines with

380-559: A hub-and-spoke model, the old point-to-point transit model was quickly adopted by the new generation of low-cost carriers (LCCs) that emerged in the 1970s and 80s. While previously, LCCs such as Southwest Airlines were only permitted to serve routes that did not cross state borders (placing them outside the purview of the CAB ), deregulation allowed low-cost airlines to choose their own domestic routes, fares, and schedules, increasing competition across state lines and creating new markets outside

475-489: A museum. Charlotte Douglas International Airport is one of the few airports in the United States with a public viewing area. Here, visitors can watch planes take off, land, and taxi to and from runway 18C/36C in addition to providing a view of concourse A. The Overlook is a popular spot for aviation enthusiasts and plane spotters. Charlotte Douglas International Airport is a smoke-free facility, which means that smoking

570-567: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

665-579: A new market. Below are the marquee effects of deregulation. In the immediate aftermath of deregulation, many large airlines adopted a hub-and-spoke system. In this system, several smaller routes ("spokes") are connected to a single larger route ("hubs") are selected an airport, the hub, as the point for flights from a number of origination cities, the spokes. Because hubs allowed passenger travel to be consolidated in "transfer stations", capacity utilization increased, decreasing costs and lowering ticket prices. While deregulation led legacy airlines to switch to

760-479: A new record for the airport. Destination CLT includes a $ 90 million terminal renovation project of Concourses A, B, C, D, and the Atrium. Aspects of the renovations include the replacement of carpet with terrazzo, upgraded lighting, remodeled bathrooms, and new seats with charging in every seat. Concourse B renovations wrapped up in 2019. With the conclusion of the terminal roadway and curb front construction, work on

855-442: A regional intermodal cargo facility, an expansion of the east-side terminal lobby, new checked baggage handling systems, and additional space for concessions and shops. Construction of the airport's fourth runway began in spring 2007. At 9,000 feet (2,700 m) long, the new "third parallel" allows three independent approaches for arrivals even from the south, potentially increasing capacity by 33 percent. The new runway lies west of

950-446: A result of deregulation, barriers to entry into the airlines industry for a potential new airline decreased significantly, resulting in many new airlines entering the market, thus increasing competition. A key indicator of the volatility of deregulation from 1976 to 1986 in the U.S. revolves around employee affairs. Airlines saw a 39% increase in employees (according to Alfred Kahn ), and saw continued yet less rapid growth throughout

1045-422: A rising U.S. population and the increasing demand of workforce mobility, these trends were some of the catalysts for dramatic expansion in passenger miles flown, increasing from 250 million passenger miles in 1978 to 750 million passenger miles in 2005. Over the past several years the public's view of airline service quality has shown a significant drop. According to the 2008 American Customer Satisfaction Index,

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1140-409: A study by economist David Card, deregulation resulted in the shift of approximately 5,000 to 7,000 airline mechanic jobs from the major trunk airlines to smaller carriers between 1978 and 1984. Because such smaller carriers typically pay less than the major airlines, the average hourly wage of airline mechanics decreased by up to 5 percent; however, this decrease is said to be relatively small. Beyond

1235-509: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

1330-554: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

1425-523: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

1520-411: Is evident in a Civil Aeronautics Board report. In the absence of particular circumstances presenting an affirmative reason for a new carrier, there appears to be no inherent desirability of increasing the present number of carriers merely for the purpose of numerically enlarging the industry. The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 removed many of the previously mentioned controls. Prior to deregulation, it

1615-671: Is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

1710-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

1805-755: Is located in the Plaza between Concourse D & E. The Club CLT Lounge is located on the walkway to the A North Concourse. It is accessible to Priority Pass and Lounge Key passholders as well as individuals purchasing a day pass. A new 15,000 square-foot Delta Skyclub is slated to open in December 2024 in the new A Concourse. CLT currently has four runways. The airport terminal is located on Josh Birmingham Parkway, which connects with Wilkinson Boulevard (to I-485 and Uptown Charlotte ), Little Rock Road (to I-85 ) and Billy Graham Parkway (to I-77 ). The Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) operates two bus routes from

1900-543: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

1995-547: Is one of a small number of major "hub" airports in the world that has an aviation museum located on the field. Sullenberger Aviation Museum , established in 1992, has a collection of over 50 aircraft, including a DC-3 that is painted in Piedmont Airlines livery. The museum also has an aviation library with over 9,000 volumes and a very extensive photography collection. Rare aircraft in the collection include one of only two surviving Douglas D-558 Skystreak aircraft and

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2090-587: Is prohibited inside the terminal building, including all restaurants, bars, lounges, and airline clubs. This is in accordance with the North Carolina Smoke-Free Law, which bans smoking in most of the public places and workplaces. However, this does not mean that smokers have no options at CLT. The Charlotte airport smoking area is easily accessible from inside and outside the terminal using the elevators or stairs near Door 1A or Door 1B. IATA airport code The assignment of these codes

2185-812: Is slated to be 10,000 feet long. It broke ground in June 2023 and construction will complete in 2027. Previously, a 12,000-foot runway had been planned; however, the airport reversed course due to practicality and cost considerations. Future terminal expansions included under the Destination CLT umbrella include Phase II of the Concourse A Expansion, Phase VIII of the Concourse E expansion, and expansions to Concourses B and C. These expansions are projected to cost roughly $ 1.1 billion and are not expected to be complete until 2026. 8-10 gates are expected to be added to Concourse B, 10-12 gates to Concourse C, and 10 gates in

2280-516: Is the process of removing government-imposed entry and price restrictions on airlines affecting, in particular, the carriers permitted to serve specific routes. In the United States, the term usually applies to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. A new form of regulation has been developed to some extent to deal with problems such as the allocation of the limited number of slots available at airports. As jets were integrated into

2375-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

2470-481: The Airline Deregulation Act . Globally, state supported airlines are still relatively common, maintaining control over ticket prices and route entry, but many countries have since deregulated their own domestic airline markets. A similar but less laissez-faire approach has been taken by the European Union , Australia, United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Ireland and select South and Central American nations. In

2565-571: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

2660-515: The 1990s. Subsequently, between 2000 and 2008, 100,000 jobs were shed - approximately 20% - and formerly busy hub airports (such as Pittsburgh and St. Louis) reduced staffing due to a significantly decreased number of flights. Immediately following the September 11th attacks, the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act provided the U.S. airlines with $ 15 billion in loans and an additional $ 5 billion in grants by

2755-422: The 28 EU nations. Open Skies agreements have been successful at removing many of the government-implemented barriers to competition and allowing airlines to have foreign partners, access to international routes to and from their home countries, and freedom from many traditional forms of economic regulation. With long standing companies like Braniff , TWA , and Pan Am disappearing through bankruptcy since 1978,

2850-527: The CAB the power to regulate airline routes, control entry to and exit from the market, and mandate service rates, to investigate accidents, certify aircraft and pilots, to create rules for air traffic control (ATC) and to recommend new rules to prevent repetition of previous accidents. Additional airline safety regulation came later with the passage of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, which created

2945-487: The CLT passenger terminal to replace the existing 150-foot tower north of the terminal. When complete, the tower will be the second-tallest air traffic control tower in the United States and the ninth-tallest in the world. The new tower is now functioning and in use. Planning is currently underway for the construction of a fourth parallel runway between existing runways 18R/36L and 18C/36C. The runway, projected to cost $ 1 billion,

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3040-533: The City of Charlotte; Eastern Air Lines began scheduled passenger service in 1937. The original passenger terminal still exists and is used for offices and training rooms by various aviation-related organizations. The United States Army Air Forces took control of the airport and established Charlotte Air Base in early 1941, which was renamed Morris Field soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor . The US military invested more than $ 5 million in airfield improvements by

3135-622: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a separate regulatory body. In 1938 the U.S. government, through the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), regulated many areas of commercial aviation such as routes, fares and schedules. The CAB had three main functions: to award routes to airlines, to limit the entry of air carriers into new markets, and to regulate fares for passengers. Much of the established practices of commercial passenger travel within

3230-458: The New York to Washington route was awarded to Eastern Air Transport , which would later become Eastern Air Lines . By 1933, United, American, TWA, and Eastern accounted for about 94% of air mail revenue. Similarly, Brown had also helped give Pan American a monopoly on international routes. (See also the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission ) Typical regulatory thinking from the 1940s onward

3325-607: The Sprinter route. Located in front of the airport terminal, the Rental Car Facility operates on the three lower levels of the Hourly Deck and has a combined 3,000 cars from eight rental car companies. The level 2 lobby includes customer counters and kiosks from the following companies: Advantage , Alamo , Avis , Budget , Dollar , Enterprise , Hertz and National . Charlotte Douglas International Airport

3420-455: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . Airline deregulation Airline deregulation

3515-402: The U.S. government. Despite these loans and grants, nearly every major carrier fired 20% of its staff, with United and American both cutting 20,000 jobs. It is difficult to determine the precise job losses due to the effects of deregulation, given such layoffs. Then-retired former CEO of American Airlines Robert Crandall stated, "I'm not sure 9/11 by itself had any particular profound impact [on

3610-517: The U.S. in 1978. It was, and still is, a part of a sweeping experiment to ultimately reduce ticket prices and entry controls holding sway over new airline hopefuls. Airline deregulation had begun with initiatives by economist Alfred E. Kahn in the Nixon administration , carried through the Ford administration and finally, at the behest of Ted Kennedy , signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 as

3705-515: The U.S., went back even farther, to the policies of Walter Folger Brown , the U.S. postmaster general from 1929 to 1933 in the administration of President Herbert Hoover . After passage of the Air Mail Act of 1930, also known as the McNary - Watres act, Brown had changed the mail payments system to encourage the manufacture of passenger aircraft instead of mail carrying aircraft. His influence

3800-520: The United States government to pass an "Air Passenger Bill of Rights" to provide specific requirements about what must happen to air passengers in certain conditions. The push for the bill stemmed from several high-profile passenger strandings over the last several years. On April 25, 2011, the Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections rule, 76 Fed. Reg. 32,110, was enacted. Among other items, the rule includes raising

3895-513: The United States in terms of passenger traffic, having processed over 50 million passengers, and fifth-busiest in terms of aircraft operations, ranking sixth globally. In 2021, CLT grew to the sixth busiest airport in the United States. Charlotte is a fortress hub for American Airlines , which operates the majority of the airport's flights. The airport has 3 operating runways and 1 non operating runway and one passenger terminal with 124 gates across five concourses. A commercial-civil-military facility,

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3990-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

4085-617: The airlines. Although it is generally recognized that the purpose behind government regulation is to create a stable industry, in the decades leading up to deregulation many airline market analysts expressed concerns with the structure of the United States' passenger air transport system. Concerns included high barriers to entry for fledgling airlines, slow government response to existing airlines entering to compete in city-pairings, and monopolistic practices by legacy airlines artificially inflating passenger ticket prices. In order to address these growing concerns airline deregulation began in

4180-410: The airport covers 5,558 acres (2,249 ha) of land. Established in 1935 as Charlotte Municipal Airport , the airport was later renamed as Douglas Municipal Airport for Ben Elbert Douglas Sr. , who was mayor of Charlotte when the airport was first built. In 1982 the airport was renamed again, this time to its current Charlotte Douglas International Airport. In 2019, CLT was the 11th-busiest airport in

4275-637: The airport is home to the Charlotte Air National Guard base and its host unit, the 145th Airlift Wing of the North Carolina Air National Guard . The city received Works Progress Administration funding to establish Charlotte's first municipal airport; the airport was, at the time, the largest single WPA project in the United States, incorporating a terminal, hangar, beacon tower and three runways. In 1936, Charlotte Municipal Airport opened, operated by

4370-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

4465-499: The airport terminal: Route 5-Airport (Sprinter) to Uptown Charlotte/ CTC and Route 60-Tyvola Road to LYNX Tyvola station . There is also bus service to the air cargo center, maintenance facilities, and old terminal via Route 10-West Boulevard to the Charlotte Transportation Center in center city Charlotte. The proposed Lynx Silver Line would serve the airport, traveling along a route that largely follows

4560-579: The airport's data network of aircraft movements and turns the data into an always-changing visual artwork. The main 139-foot (42 m)-long screen is one of the largest digital artworks of its kind in the world. In late 2019, the new terminal roadway was opened. The new roadway has sixteen lanes over two levels, with departures traffic using the elevated level and arrivals traffic utilizing the ground level. The eight lanes on each level are split into five outer lanes for personal vehicles, and three inner lanes for commercial and airport vehicles. Some components of

4655-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

4750-550: The airport. The airport plans to construct an automated people mover to connect the terminal to the light rail station, which will be located at the airport's Destination District just north of the terminal. CLT has one terminal with 124 gates on five concourses. All five concourses are connected to the central terminal building housing ticketing, security, and baggage claim. American has two Admirals Club locations in Concourses B & C. An American Express Centurion Lounge

4845-502: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

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4940-537: The domestic liberalization of the airlines in the U.S., Open Skies agreements are bilateral agreements between the U.S. and other countries to open the aviation market to foreign access and remove barriers to competition. These agreements give airlines the right to operate air services from any point in the U.S. to any point in the other country, as well as to and from third countries. The first major Open Skies agreements were entered into in 1979. The U.S. has Open Skies agreements with more than 60 countries, including 15 of

5035-589: The early days of interstate air travel, the prevalent thought at the time was that government regulation was necessary to protect and promote the fledgling industry. For example, the then dominant rail industry was forbidden from a financial interest in airlines to prevent them from smothering competition in the industry. Congress created the Civil Aeronautics Authority, which became the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), and gave

5130-447: The end of its west concourse in 1973. In April 1975, the airport had 97 weekday departures to 32 destinations on seven airlines. After airline deregulation , passenger numbers at the terminal nearly doubled between 1978 and 1980, and a new 10,000-foot (3,000 m) parallel runway and control tower opened in 1979. The airport's master plan called for a new terminal across the runway from the existing site, with ground broken in 1979. At

5225-934: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

5320-583: The expansion is "The Plaza," a food court. The Plaza's artistic centerpiece is a hanging artwork entitled "Loops" by Christian Moeller . "Loops" became a part of the project through a partnership between the airport and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Arts and Science Council. The upper level of the East Terminal Expansion includes a Centurion Lounge . The airport announced that it had served 50.2 million passengers in 2019,

5415-520: The expansion of Concourse A farther north. Phase VIII of the Concourse E expansion will add 34,000 square feet (3,200 m) of hold room to the concourse. This phase of the expansion accommodates gates already in operation; however, passengers must walk under temporary canopies to access the aircraft parked at these gates. The construction of the CATS LYNX Silver Line , expected to be complete in 2030, will bring light rail service to

5510-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

5605-478: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

5700-597: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

5795-424: The future growth of the airport. Concourse A North, a nine-gate expansion of Concourse A, was completed in summer 2018. Air Canada , JetBlue , United , Southwest , Frontier , and Spirit moved their operations to Concourse A North upon its completion. A digital artwork titled "Interconnected," by Refik Anadol , is prominently featured on three massive display screens in Concourse A North. The artwork draws from

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5890-570: The ground floor. Ticketing and baggage claim were on each side of an open space that bisected the building north to south, and a mezzanine restaurant and airline offices overlooked this open space. Delta Air Lines began scheduled passenger service in 1956. The OAG for April 1957 shows 57 weekday departures on Eastern, 7 Piedmont, 6 Capital, 4 Delta and 2 Southern. Nonstop flights did not reach beyond Newark, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Louisville, Birmingham, and Jacksonville. Scheduled jet flights (Eastern Air Lines Boeing 720s) began in early 1962. Eastern used

5985-436: The industry], but it exacerbated the problems they had before 9/11." Although regular pay-cuts had become commonplace in the years following deregulation, of the employees remaining after September 11, 2001, the average pay cut has been 18%, with many of the highest earners seeing as much as 40% reductions. Further, virtually every regularly scheduled airline has shifted its pension obligations to its employees. According to

6080-749: The intent of increasing both prices and competition. In June 2008 former CEO of American Airlines , Robert Crandall stated, The consequences of deregulation have been very adverse. Our airlines, once world leaders, are now laggards in every category, including fleet age, service quality and international reputation. Fewer and fewer flights are on time. Airport congestion has become a staple of late-night comedy shows. An even higher percentage of bags are lost or misplaced. Last-minute seats are harder and harder to find. Passenger complaints have skyrocketed. Airline service, by any standard, has become unacceptable. Crandall has also criticized deregulation for causing airlines to cut service to smaller airports, resulting in

6175-487: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

6270-409: The last section. With the merger of US Airways and American Airlines in 2013, Charlotte became the second-largest hub for the merged airline, after Dallas/Fort Worth . In 2015, airport officials formally announced the completion of the "CLT 2015" plan, and kicked off construction of the new Destination CLT airport development plan. Destination CLT represents a total $ 2.5 billion investment into

6365-431: The main terminal. In 1969, a new enclosed concourse was built parallel to the center pier. When it was completed, Piedmont, Eastern, and Delta moved in and the old center pier was demolished. The new concourse had separate departure lounges, restrooms and an enlarged baggage claim area. United's flights continued to use the east pier, with an enclosed holding room added for waiting passengers. Eastern added two more gates to

6460-526: The market in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the industry experienced dramatic growth. By the mid-1960s, airlines were carrying roughly 100 million passengers and by the mid-1970s, over 200 million Americans had traveled by air. This steady increase in air travel began placing serious strains on the ability of federal regulators to cope with the increasingly complex nature of air travel. The onset of high inflation, low economic growth, falling productivity, rising labor costs and higher fuel costs proved problematic to

6555-723: The minimum "denied boarding compensation" to customers with valid tickets yet still not allowed to board the aircraft. The legislation further penalizes airlines up to $ 27,500 a passenger if left stranded aboard an aircraft, on a tarmac for more than three hours. In 2010, the largest trade associations representing airline management interests before Capitol Hill, Airlines for America and the Regional Airline Association, opposed this legislation stating that they could self-regulate themselves and they already had begun implementing systems by which to mitigate any tarmac delays. Later American Eagle, an RAA airline member,

6650-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

6745-449: The new "Queen's Court" area in the expanded lobby. After the lobby renovation and expansion is complete, a 146,000-square-foot (13,600 m) glass canopy will be constructed over the roadway and pedestrian skybridges and tunnels will be built connecting the terminal to the hourly parking/rental car facility complex. Separate from the Destination CLT family of projects, the FAA is building a new 367-foot (112 m) control tower south of

6840-413: The new 32-gate Concourse E opened. The airline closed its Concourse D US Airways Club location in 2002. In 2003, the main ticketing hall was expanded to the east, providing 13 additional ticketing counters and a new security checkpoint; Concourse D was expanded by an additional nine gates. Following the 2005 acquisition of US Airways by America West Airlines in a reverse takeover , Charlotte remained

6935-469: The new merged operations kept the USAir name. In 1990, a new 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m) international and commuter concourse (Concourse D) opened, and in 1991 further expansion of the central terminal building continued, reflective of USAir's dominating presence at the airport. A monumental bronze statue of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (the namesake of the city), created by Raymond Kaskey ,

7030-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

7125-422: The primary domestic hub for the airline. The majority of US Airways' international routes remained at the airline's second-largest hub, Philadelphia . Between 2007 and 2015, the airport completed $ 1.5 billion worth of construction projects, part of which later became known as the "CLT 2015" plan. These projects included a new airport entrance roadway, new hourly parking decks with a centralized rental car facility,

7220-401: The project, namely the skybridges from the hourly parking deck and rental car facility, the glass canopy over the roadway, and some lanes on the departure level will not be finished until the terminal lobby project is complete. In November 2019, the East Terminal Expansion opened. The expansion added 51,000 square feet, primarily of passenger amenity space, across three levels. The main level of

7315-643: The route. Starting on July 4, 2023, and for the foreseeable future, Lufthansa will be switching the equipment on the Munich-Charlotte route and vice versa to the Airbus A340-600 from the Airbus A350-900 . In 1999, plans were announced for the construction of a regional carrier concourse (present-day Concourse E) and for the expansion of Concourses A and D. This expansion was designed by The Wilson Group and LS3P Associates Ltd. In 2002,

7410-506: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

7505-662: The second (and oldest surviving) U.S.-built Harrier, which was used as the flight-test aircraft and accumulated over 5,000 flight-test hours. In January 2011, the museum acquired N106US , the US Airways Airbus A320 ditched by captain Chesley Sullenberger as US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. This aircraft, which was delivered on June 10, 2011, is about 35 years younger than any other commercial airliner on display in

7600-500: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

7695-408: The terminal lobby renovation and expansion began. The $ 600 million project is projected to be completed in 2025. The project will consolidate existing security checkpoints A, B, C, D, and E into three larger and more efficient checkpoints. The baggage claim and ticketing areas will be completely gutted and remodeled. Raymond Kaskey's "Queen Charlotte" statue will be moved to a prominent position within

7790-529: The three existing runways. The construction of the fourth runway required the relocation of parts of Wallace Neel Road (which had been the Western boundary of the airport) to an alignment located farther to the west. Construction occurred in two phases. The first phase, which began in March 2007, included grading and drainage. The second phase included the paving and lighting of the runway. In August 2009, crews paved

7885-533: The time the facility was returned to the City of Charlotte in 1946. The airfield was used by the Third Air Force for antisubmarine patrols and training. In 1954, a 70,000-square-foot (6,500 m) passenger terminal opened and the airport was renamed Douglas Municipal Airport in honor of former Charlotte Mayor Ben Elbert Douglas Sr. , who had overseen the airport's opening 20 years earlier. The terminal had two floors; passenger operations were confined to

7980-531: The time, the airport had only two concourses: one used exclusively by Eastern, and one used by other carriers, including United , Delta , Piedmont , and several commuter airlines. In 1979, Piedmont Airlines chose Charlotte as the hub for its expanding network. A new 325,000-square-foot (30,200 m) passenger terminal designed by Odell Associates opened in 1982, and the airport was renamed Charlotte Douglas International Airport . Concourses B and C were expanded in 1987 and 1984 respectively, while Concourse A

8075-437: The two largest states ( California and Texas ). As the cost of flying dropped, the number of potential customers increased, making many smaller routes viable. Base ticket prices have declined steadily since deregulation. The inflation-adjusted 1982 constant dollar yield for airlines has fallen from 12.3 cents in 1978 to 7.9 cents in 1997, and the inflation-adjusted real price of flying fell 44.9% from 1978 to 2011. Along with

8170-515: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

8265-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

8360-418: The west pier, Piedmont and Delta the center pier, and United and Southern used the east pier. A major renovation project in the late 1960s expanded the facility. Eastern opened a unit terminal in 1967, replacing the old west pier. This new facility had eight dedicated gates for Eastern, each with its own departure lounge, snack bar and separate baggage claim space. Eastern passengers continued to check in at

8455-424: The years since 2000 have seen every remaining legacy carrier file for bankruptcy at least once, with the exception of Alaska Airlines . US Airways filed twice in the same number of years. During the same time period, Southwest Airlines continued to expand its route structure, buy new airplanes, and hire more employees, while remaining profitable. JetBlue , a new airline that started up in 1999, "was one of only

8550-426: Was also a sign of deregulation success (because they were caused by lower prices leading Americans to book more flights). Kahn considered the turmoil, congestion, and delays to be unforeseen "surprises" from deregulation, but believed they continued to support deregulation in spite of these events. A major goal of airline deregulation was to increase competition between airline carriers, leading to price decreases. As

8645-437: Was built in 1986 to handle future growth. In 1987, Piedmont started non-stop 767 flights to London. In the mid-1980s, the old terminal site was converted to a cargo center, and the central concourse and Eastern unit terminal were removed to make way for more cargo buildings. The original main building still stands and is used for office space. The old control tower was removed in the late 1990s. In 1989 Piedmont merged with USAir;

8740-407: Was crucial in awarding contracts so as to create four major domestic airlines: United, American, Eastern, and Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA). Contracts for each of three transcontinental air mail routes were awarded to United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (later United), Robertson Aircraft Corporation (later American), and Transcontinental Air Transport (later TWA). The contract for

8835-806: Was placed in front of the main terminal. In 1990, Lufthansa began Boeing 747 service to Germany; this service ended shortly thereafter. In 1994 British Airways began service to London via a "global alliance" with USAir. This was later discontinued, as British Airways formed the Oneworld Alliance and USAir become a part of the Star Alliance (although USAir later joined Oneworld prior to merging with American ). Lufthansa restarted service to Charlotte in 2003 and now operates flights between Charlotte and Munich , utilizing their Airbus A350-900 fleet. Prior to March 31, 2019, Lufthansa flew their Airbus A340-600 and Airbus A330-300 aircraft on

8930-572: Was required that airlines first seek regulatory approval to serve any given route. Thus incumbent airline operators could raise barriers to the challenge of new competition. This system was dismantled as a result of the Airline Deregulation Act. (See also the Centennial of Flight Commission ) It also dismantled the notion of a flag carrier . In the wake of deregulation, airlines adopted new strategies and consumers experienced

9025-748: Was the first airline to be fined under the new legislation. A total settlement including fines and compensation paid to passengers totaled $ 800,000 for tarmac delays incurred in Chicago in May 2011. Deregulation advocate Alfred Kahn noted a deterioration in the quality of airline service following deregulation, including the "turmoil" of massive restructuring of airline routes, price wars, conflicts with airline employee unions, airline bankruptcies, and industry consolidation. He also noted unexpected congestion and delays "that have plagued air travelers in recent years". However, he also argued that such congestion and delays

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