Another article from the Mobile Press Register backing up my original comments.
Airport officials in Mobile claim that the Mobile Regional Airport is capable of handling the chartered flights required tomorrow for passengers aboard the Carnival Triumph, despite comments earlier today from a Carnival official.
"We have plenty of space," Buddy Rice, spokesman with the Mobile Regional Airport said. "We were ready. We talked at length with the airlines and took in a couple of flights (carrying their) employees from Miami. They all know about our airport. It's more than sufficient to handle any type of aircraft."
Thomas Hughes, the airport's director of aviation, said his team had been working with Carnival since Tuesday and that "various airlines" had contacted the airport about operating chartered flights out of the Mobile Regional Airport and the airport at Brookley Aeroplex.
Hughes said the only logistical issue at either facility was providing stairs to the operations at Brookley for a 747 plane. Security would not have been a problem at either facility, he said, adding that private screeners would have to have been set up at the Brookley facility.
"From what I understand, they would operate out of New Orleans from the west ramp," Hughes said. "If that is the case, they are also faced with the same task for getting a private screener (to that facility)."
Terry Thornton, senior vice-president of marketing at Carnival, said during a morning news conference that it simply was not "feasible" to provide chartered flights from Mobile to Houston.
He said a Carnival logistics expert determined that the air charter requirements and the number of people needed to move out of the city made it difficult to handle the operations in Mobile.
More than 4,200 passengers and crew members are aboard the Triumph, and a sizable amount of Carnival employees will stay in Mobile while the vessel is repaired.
Passengers are expected to begin unloading between 7 and 8 p.m., but too many variables exist to set a firm timetable.
Carnival, through a news release yesterday, somewhat surprised local officials when it announced plans to bus passengers from Mobile to New Orleans after the Triumph docks later this evening.
Mayor Sam Jones, during a news conference on Wednesday, said the city's airport is "perfectly capable" of transporting passengers to Houston and that there are enough hotels in the region to accommodate all passengers and crew members.
Jones, Rice and Hughes admit that they were not part of the decision making on the logistics of how the passengers would return to Houston.
But the Miami-based company's decision to forgo Mobile and haul the weary Triumph passengers to New Orleans instead of an immediate trip to Mobile's downtown hotels has some people online asking questions.
Further compounding the situation was Carnival's web site yesterday posting an advertisement questioning why people would stay in Alabama when they could cruise from New Orleans. The company, in October 2011, left the Alabama Cruise Terminal, leaving the facility along Water Street relatively dormant ever since.
"Thank you for taking the offensive ad telling traveler's to avoid Alabama off of the front page of your website," one person commented on Carnival's Facebook page. "Our city has mobilized for days and has some 6,000 rooms available five minutes from your ex-terminal as well as many other amenities prepared for the passengers that you are now planning to put on buses to Texas and Louisiana. Another long drive. I am sorry that your company believes that an additional night on their stranded ship AND an additional drive of up three to seven hours is preferable to staying in Mobile for even the time it takes to shower and eat ... I do hope that you stop your 'vendetta' against us. It isn't warranted and is shameful and insulting of you."
Rice, meanwhile, believes the likely reason for Carnival's decision to bus passengers about two hours to New Orleans is because the "Crescent City" has single hotels with larger occupancy than Mobile's hotels.
"What is the deciding factor is to get customers into one hotel," Rice said. "We have plenty of rooms in the Mobile area, but not (large enough hotels)."
Hughes said the Mobile Regional Airport remains prepared to handle the chartered operations if Carnival chooses to change their plans.
Rice also said that the decision didn't come down to whether Mobile's fees were higher than New Orleans.
Hughes said fees were never discussed.
"This is a humanitarian event and we stand ready to do whatever it is to help these people," Rice said.