re: Is Shreveport Regional the worst airport in the world?

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Lafayette is a nice place to fly out of nowadays. 2-3 minutes from the front door to the gate. The CRJs United flies out of there suck but the facility itself is great.

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I like that they configured the new LFT terminal similar to BTR. Looks very nice and well lit. Definitely a huge upgrade.

I was kind of surprised that SHV has fewer passengers than BTR. I know that BTR is in a metro area more than twice the size of SHV, but BTR is also close enough to MSY to lose a lot of passengers to that airport. SHV sees about 600,000 passengers per year and BTR sees 800,000+ per year despite SHV having Allegiant service.

Not suggesting anything good about Allegiant service but that probably does help draw more passengers to the airport during vacation season. I'm sure their seasonal service to Orlando alone is a huge draw for SHV.

I love BTR airport, but they desperately need to add another jetway to B concourse They are out of gates with jetways at the moment, so at least one of the American flights has to use B5 during rush hour, which is ground level or one of the Delta gates in A concourse. It kind of sucks if it's raining. The airport does have a door plug for a new jetway that they can add at the end of B right now (I guess it would be B3 or B6). If they did that, every flight would have a jetway even at rush hour. The spot I'm referring to would have to extend the jetway hard left out of the terminal to avoid hitting whatever jet that's parked at B2. But I've seen more awkward configurations at countless airports.

I know the Baton Rouge people like to talk about getting Southwest service, but that's not going to happen without at least 3-4 new gates added to the far end of either A or B. That's a major expansion. I'm sure the airport would happily add that if Southwest committed to new flights, but that airline typically doesn't come into a new airport with just one or two nonstops. They are going to probably add 3-4 minimum, which would draw in a lot more passengers. The parking deck would probably have to be expanded to if that happened.