WSTB

Thanks waggonera for this, a lot of work, but greatly appreciated illustrating and proving what many of us have been saying for, well, a decade or so! Thanks again!

I wasn't aware of the mail route thing, but probably that's why the regional mail hub is in in Greensboro instead of Kernersville where it should be located.

What I recall reading and hearing though I have no saved documentation is that it really comes down to the arrogance of W-S and so reckon W-S is reaping what it has sown. Greensboro always wanted the airport and saw the opportunity as mentioned and took it. W-S arrogantly at the time presumed they could prevail with its own airport - not so obviously. Greensboro never wanted to involve W-S in the airport location (really short-sighted on their part in the long-haul). If W-S had been clever and insisted as well as persisted on the matter, the so-called triad might have a major airport (and maybe a real Triad instead of a joke) competing with Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, which would have benefitted Greensboro as well, more so than the barely even regional presence of GSO even with its ostensible and meaningless reference as PTI .

There were a few W-S voices in the wilderness, but no one would listen, so Greensboro saw its opportunity and seized it. I doubt if anything can be resurrected now, but the sad thing is that W-S/Forsyth officials don't even try - it's shameful and absolutely embarrassingly reticent on their part.

W-S will never amount to anything or being euphemistic on the matter will never realize its obvious potential without an airport. I repeat, repeat, repeat, if Raleigh-Durham is listed nationwide (along with other such dual representations) surely Greensboro/Winston-Salem (there's that hyphen problem again) can and of a right ought to be listed thusly as well!!! Why cannot W-S/Forsyth officials get this done with the airlines nationwide regardless of the 3-character designation, which by the way is "criminal" that Greensboro will not change that to PTI (as I point out available again).

F&M, a rare disagreement, but please not in the Charlotte CSA - that would be disastrous immho.

To be frank, this is the issue. I have listed only three things - total travel time, how many stops and total cost. I found these by going to Google and typing in "Flights." I'm sure you may find different results from different sites, but I would bet the trend holds.

Suggested flights from GSO to NYC (JFK) tomorrow:


4 hr 14 min
1 stop
$406
---

6 hr 53 min
1 stop
$408
----

4 hr 44 min
1 stop
$459

-----

Suggest flights from CLT to NYC (JFK) tomorrow:

2 hr
Nonstop
$338
------

1 hr 58 min
Nonstop
$338
-----

1 hr 59 min
Nonstop
$353
----

GSO costs more and and offers increased travel times compared to CLT. The airport's name and proximity to Winston is a red herring that only this board cares about.

A few days ago, I received a promotional email from American Airlines. I noticed the heading was: “From Greensboro/High Point” instead of PTI or GSO. They failed to mention Winston Salem in the email. My immediate thought was that Nido Qubein probably made a phone call to American and ask them to add High Point to the name whenever they released any communications from American regarding PTI. This would help bookings for visitors to HPU as well as the furniture market. I thought I would check out his website and American was indeed one of his clients: https://www.nidoqubein.com/ What he has accomplished as High Point U is utterly amazing and they (HPU) have already invested $2 billion and they plan to invest an additional $1 billion in the next decade and potentially add a medical school. Amazon did an amazing bio of him and it’s well worth your time if you haven’t already seen it: https://vimeo.com/watchdnafilms/review/ ... 3cf216709c Our mayor could probably do the same thing by contacting the airlines that serve the area via PTI and get Winston Salem’s name added to any communications.

Until American Airlines relocates its corporate headquarters from the state of Texghanistan, it will get no business from me.

This was in today's TBJ: "House Bill 334 is a fiscal year 2022 budget amendment that provides a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) for an economic development project at PTI, identified in the bill as an aircraft manufacturer." It will be interesting to see what company is a potential occupant of the site. Honda Jet is working on a larger aircraft (Model 2600 - mid range) for their second introduction and they came to mind when I read this.

Update to the TBJ article this afternoon from Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth County: “I believe there will be an announcement soon,” he told Triad Business Journal on Tuesday.“Soon” could come as early as next Tuesday, following the next scheduled meeting of the Economic Investment Committee of the North Carolina Department of Commerce. The EIC approves all JDIG appropriations".

Forsyth County delegate should work toward landing the manufacturer at Smith Reynolds rather than Greensboro/Guilford - there is no Triad according to Greensboro.

I agree! There are quite a few new upstart companies looking at the future of aviation without the use of fossil fuels. The city should be aggressively recruiting these types of companies.

The PTI project is likely way too big to fit at Smith Reynolds. It is a good win for the area, anyway.

Smith Reynolds could never be in the running for a project of that size. It should be an excellent candidate, however for any number of spin off businesses that this mega aviation project might generate. But again, that is somewhat thwarted by the fact that an sizable piece of available airport adjacent land has been allocated to non aviation commercial users (Garner Foods/Texas Pete project). Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely pleased that Garner Foods is investing in new facilities in the city but much like the placement of 2nd Harvest Food Bank in Whitaker Park, it just seems those projects could have been accommodated on other sites in the city that would work equally well for them but may not be an obvious choice for an out of town prospect. If Whitaker Park & Smith Reynolds are two of our most prominent offerings for economic development recruitment, then those sites should be preserved for out of market prospects.

Yeah, I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: Greensboro is our ally, not our rival. I have neighbors that work in Greensboro and co-workers that live in Greensboro. PTI is 25 minutes from downtown Winston. Our businesses depend on a strong airport to survive, and our community depends in PTI to try to compete with Charlotte and Raleigh.

What is good for Greensboro is good for Winston.

If Winston-Salem wants to build any type of aviation cluster at Smith Reynolds Airport, the region needs some big names to name drop with. Not all aviation companies will locate at the airport. That is something local leaders are talking about. Some may locate at Whitaker Park or Oak Summit or maybe the Innovation Quarter. Any aviation-related company will want to know who is here, before making any decisions to locate in the area. I consider the aerospace mega site at PTI as the true regional game changer for the entire Triad. The battery plant is right at Durham-Chapel Hill MSA and it's very possible Raleigh-Durham will take a large amount of the suppliers and gain any automotive manufacturing from that announcement. Chatham County has a mega site for an automaker and a supplier site. The battery plant could become nothing more than a supplier of batteries for a Raleigh-Durham auto plant and create the auto corridor leading into Chatham County, instead of Guilford. Chatham County is right at that site. That is why I have very little excitement over that project.

The aviation manufacturing plant at PTI could be huge news for Kernersville. They have really set themselves up to take advantage of all of the growth from PTI. I was just talking about this with someone from Kernersville earlier this morning. I'm expecting Kernersville to take much of the residential growth generated and be well positioned to take some of the suppliers. And again, if this is a big name in the industry, it could help Winston-Salem in attracting or at least appearing on the radar of aviation businesses looking for sites. I think Winston-Salem wants to be in the research and tech side, with Greensboro on the manufacturing side. I would like to see Greensboro develop another aerospace mega site at PTI, if they can.

The term “Triad” is conceptually fake, it only applies as a spatial footprint. I don’t argue that this is highly productive and a windfall for the region. No doubt, some positive aspects will spillover to Forsyth.

Past action does not seem to support this position.

Wish that was so. One must wonder if the folk in Greensboro would embrace the converse.

There’s no point in rehashing the airport problem. All boards nationwide indicate Raleigh/Durham but only Greensboro - why is that, because officials in W-S accept it and make no corrective attempts and certainly Greensboro does not. And if Greensboro really wanted to cooperate the code would be changed from GSO to PTI.

I hope this is major because it will be positive for everyone.

I think more activity at PTI/GSO benefits us as a city if it leads to more traffic and more convenient, direct, and inexpensive flights to and from more destinations. It’s a reasonably close airport—25 minutes from my office with easy parking. That’s closer than O’Hare or Midway were to me when I lived in Chicago or JFK or LaGuardia were from me when I lived in NYC. That’s closer than LAX is to Beverly Hills. More locally, that’s closer than Wake Forest (the town) is to RDU, and closer than Sandy Springs, Marietta, Roswell, etc. are to ATL.

The biggest problem, in my book, with GSO —and the reason we often choose to fly out of RDU or CLT— is that it only has direct flights to a few cities and the times aren’t always convenient. And while I don’t mind a slight premium, fewer airlines means less choice and higher fares. I do not care what the airport is called, and I don’t think most travelers do either. And frankly, I don’t love the idea of having tons more air traffic into INT. Maybe that’s from too many years living on the glide paths to busy airports.

Hyperloop to CLT isn’t happening anytime soon. Nor is a massive revival of INT. I’m all for a more vibrant GSO if it makes air travel more convenient than it currently is.

Agreed, Robinhood.