re: What are BTR’s (Baton Rouge airport) long-term plans to remain competitive and viable

What they should do quickly:

Try to convince Delta/Delta Connection to stop running CRJ-200's on the ATL-BTR route. In 2017 American up-gauged to CRJ-700's (2-class and more reliable) and passenger counts went up accordingly. United had also done so by that point. DL still a crap shoot at some CRJ-200's, some 717's....

At least from the AA/AA Eagle half of the terminal the overall travel experience has improved dramatically since the change. I fly 100k+ miles/year and this may be the first year I avoid MSY completely. They also use the field at BTR to 'store' some of the CRJ-700 overnights, so the early AM flights have been pretty reliable.

Longer Term....wait, and don't do anything crazy.

Provided SWB doesn't screw up progress downtown completely (not out of the question); Downtown growth, continued gentrification in mid-city, and filling in the gap along Nicholson between downtown and LSU all help out BTR by pulling disposable income closer to the city center vs. disposable income bleeding more toward Prairieville/Gonzales. Especially if these become the areas that relocated college graduates move to.

I don't see a need to waste money trying to attract Southwest. Southwest doesn't operate off a traditional hub and spoke model and they only fly 737's (including a bunch of orders for the 737 max) so I don't see how BTR is a good fit for them anytime soon. It's much more achievable that either AA, UA, or DL pick up a 1x day route to one of their other hubs.

If the airport can do that, and not lose money (even if it's just by renting nearby land to other businesses), it'll serve nicely as the quiet (but perfectly functional) alternative to MSY for local and especially business customers. No reason MSY and BTR can't thrive together - as long as they realize they're playing 2 completely different games.


My off the wall idea would be for an "SEC Airlines" to form. This airline would be a small fleet without a set schedule that runs small planes on direct routes from "Away" SEC cities to "Home" SEC cities across the various sports (realizing most of the money is made in football). Overhead monitors could play footage of the last time the Away team beat the Home team at their stadium, etc... play it up a bit.

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Try to convince Delta/Delta Connection to stop running CRJ-200's on the ATL-BTR route. In 2017 American up-gauged to CRJ-700's (2-class and more reliable) and passenger counts went up accordingly. United had also done so by that point. DL still a crap shoot at some CRJ-200's, some 717's....

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The Delta flights out of BTR am on are usually 717s, MD88's and CRJ-900s. Sometimes I will get a CRJ-700. Every once in a blue moon it's an A319.

It's been a very long time that I've been on a CRJ-200 at any airport. Those don't even have first class seats.

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At least from the AA/AA Eagle half of the terminal the overall travel experience has improved dramatically since the change

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AA/Eagle is actually doing well in Baton Rouge. Supposedly they may be adding another non-stop to a major east coast airport this year. That will bring them up to 3 non stops out of BTR.

If I status match, I will try AA/Eagle. Delta sends everything through ATL now that MEM has been de-hubbed. They need another alternative out of a lot of southern airports.

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With MSY’s recent enhancements, terminal addition and increasing routes,

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I flew in here a couple weeks back. The place looks like a ghost town. There is one terminal. And then another behind a wall?

The frickin baggage took 40 minutes to unload.

Pahtooey on this airport.

I’m more than happy to pay a little extra to fly out of BTR. You can get from parking to your gate in 10 minutes

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As someone who flew out of BTR this morning, I woke up at 6:30am, ate, showered, parked in long term, and was in the terminal by 7:15am. I then proceeded to wait around for 35 minutes until we boarded and left at 815am. With an 8am flight out of MSY, I would've left the house at 5am just to be on the safe side. That hr and a half of extra sleep in the morning makes a huge difference.

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I'm a big fan of that 8:15 flight. Pull out of my driveway for 7:30 and I walk straight from the garage through no wait in security because of the lull in flights from 9-12, and straight onto the plane because they've already begun boarding.

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DL from BTR is 2 CR2's a day on most days then 4 CRJ7/9's and 1 or 2 717's.

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I'm stuck with one of these CR2s tomorrow unfortunately, first one in about a year out of BTR... That's part of the reason I stopped flying AA, then of course they upgraded to CR7s. The more 717s that show up here the better, wondering if the C-series flights will end up here as well for these small/mid-size markets.

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They used to do the DL ExpressJet planes, but DL forced them to stop because of constant morning delays due to time overruns on overnight maintenance

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This is the reason I'd never book the 8/8:30am flights, DL would always do a plane swap if the 6am flight wasn't ready and they'd just push the delay to the 8am flight. At least now it's one skywest, one endeavor, and one expressjet plane overnight.

i'd be happy if they would just stay consistent on their TSA Precheck policy. It changes depending on the people working at a given time.

take your laptop out.. no need to take your laptop out... empty your pockets... no need to empty your pockets.

Last Tuesday the precheck people had to merge with the non precheck people which pretty much defeats the purpose of the precheck.

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This is the reason I'd never book the 8/8:30am flights, DL would always do a plane swap if the 6am flight wasn't ready and they'd just push the delay to the 8am flight. At least now it's one skywest, one endeavor, and one expressjet plane overnight.

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It was absolute garbage. And I think enough people started to complain. Most of it was before ExpressJet bought ASA, though.

I had something like 12 straight delays from BTR on ASA operated flights. None due to weather. Most due to delays from overnight maint. I know for a fact they lost some high-value customers from the BTR market.

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I had something like 12 straight delays from BTR on ASA operated flights. None due to weather. Most due to delays from overnight maint. I know for a fact they lost some high-value customers from the BTR market.

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That sounds miserable. In the '07-'09 (and maybe later?) timeframe when AA was running a lot of E-145's I had some pretty strange maintenance delays but nothing that bad!

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wondering if the C-series flights will end up here as well for these small/mid-size markets.

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Not for a while. I'm looking forward to flying on one.

Delta is going to be using the first C-Series jets out of northeastern airports first. Eventually the C-series will spread throughout the country on routes that currently feature the CRJ-900. The CRJ-900s will then eventually replace the CRJ-700 and CRJ-200s.