Austin City Council votes to re-open the South Terminal

Good news Austin flyers! The Austin City Council just voted to re-open South Terminal for commercial air traffic!

Current state of the South Terminal

This will create room for low-cost airlines (such as Allegiant and Frontier) to move over from the main terminal and expand. Even if you are not interested in flying these low cost airlines, the competitive effect will lower airfares.

Take Chicago as an example: Back in 2013, one early JT's Flight Deals' follower asked me to alert him anytime the airfare between Austin and Chicago dropped below $300 roundtrip. As a broke college student, he was thrilled one time when it was once just $243 - out of Waco!

A moderately-priced weekend getaway with AA choosing to match Frontier's fares

Flash forward to now: both American and Frontier now have nonstops from Austin to Chicago and it is much cheaper! I have seen (and reserved) flights on this route as low as $81 roundtrip nonstop on American. It's a whole different game!

Lots of departures from Austin on a Wednesday afternoon

Competition is strong in Austin, with 14+ commercial airlines flying in/out of Austin - and more on the way with a direct from Austin to Frankfurt Germany beginning next summer. Passenger traffic almost hit 11 million in 2014! Travel + Leisure just named Austin #5 in best domestic airports

Austin's first time on the list!

It's a good time to be flying out of Austin, and it's only going to get better with more competition and more gates.

Check out this KXAN story discussing the possibility of opening the South Terminal: http://kxan.com/2015/06/18/low-cost-carriers-will-take-over-abias-south-terminal/

What do you think of the Austin City Council vote? Are you excited for more competition out of Austin? Would you be interested in flying out of the South Terminal?