Charlotte's Douglas International Airport is a major hub for U.S. Airways, with significant domestic and international traffic. U.S. Airways inherited this hub when it bought out Charlotte-based Piedmont Airlines in 1989, and it remains the dominant carrier there to this day. In addition to a substantial number of domestic flights, U.S. Airways also operates a significant number of routes overseas to Europe and the Caribbean out of Douglas. In order to handle the growth in traffic, the City of Charlotte is adding a third north-south runway at Douglas. The former 18R/36L was been renumbered to 18C/36C in the fall of 2008, and a new 18R/36L runway is under construction immediately west of this one. The new runway is expected to open by the end of 2009. Unfortunately, as with many other recent airport expansions (Seattle/Tacoma, Cincinnati, and Eugene's Mahlon Sweet Field to name just a few), all these new runways won't make an appearance in Flight Simulator X. No, I'm not bitter. ;-)
Charlotte is an important financial center in the U.S., with several large banks (including Bank of America and Wachovia) having their headquarters here.
Here we see a U.S. Airways Airbus A320 at the terminal in the foreground. This was one of the few that happened to still be around -- must have been during a lull:
The Charlotte skyline is visible off in the distance:
We have been directed to 36L (now 36C in real life) for takeoff. Here we taxi to the runway:
And just like that, we're off!
We turn back around toward the south, with a view of the Charlotte skyline in the distance, and the airport in the foreground:
Our flight plan takes us south over Columbia, South Carolina toward Savannah, Georgia. We are somewhere over South Carolina here:
At Savannah, we greet the Atlantic Ocean once again. We will follow along the Atlantic coasts of Georgia and Florida for the entire remaining flight to Fort Lauderdale:
We are just off the coast of Florida near Jacksonville here:
Looking off to the east, we can see some of the many islands that make up the Bahamas:
Before long, we begin our descent into Fort Lauderdale. The airport can be seen off in the distance:
We have been cleared for landing on Runway 27R at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. We are lined up on final here:
We will be touching down in a moment or two. The airport is located in a fairly scenic location, near the cruise ship terminal. Downtown Fort Lauderdale is in the background:
Here are some JetBlue and Delta planes parked at the gate:
Ah, welcome back to sunny south Florida once again!
Total flight time: 1:12
Next stop: Cincinnati...er, sort of.
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