Problems In Phl?

[hack73]

I was speaking with a Rss from Phl today and I was told come May,we do not have enough gates to handle the additional flights in PHl.Also,we miss on an average over 1,00 bags a day in Phl.Supposedly AA has 3 gates for sale,and if we do not get them ,it will be worse than ever in Phl.Why can't these idiots in CCY see that PHL cannot handle all of the additional air traffic on top of a lack of gate space?

 

[mweiss]

I thought rolling was supposed to be used to address that problem. How much were you planning on increasing flights there???

 

[bofie]

Maybe they plan on rolling the schedule.

 

[USFlyer]

There is no way US needs more gates. They need to better use the gates they already have instead of letting them sit idle for hours at a time. (Or letting them sit there with planes sitting idle.)

 

[JayBrian]

The A West gates look empty most of the day, why not use them?

 

[El Gato]

GRRRRRRRR!

Allow me to clue you all in on a little something that has been going on in PHL for ages. Baggage unloaders/loaders are slow as molasses, and they are the sort who like to walk away from a partially loaded plane at the end of their shift....never mind that the flight has the passengers on board looking at these dolts waving goodbye and not getting the flight going....their attitude is "It's Miller time!" while the people onboard are swearing after a 45 minute delay that they will never fly US again. And you know what? They won't. There is a new sheriff in town, and his name is Southwest. And his rampers and baggage loaders are doing your job with THREE times the efficiency, and at half the cost.

Want more gate space? Fire every local Philly dork who is working for US on the ramp and hire some young, fresh, go-getter attitude workers from CLT or whereever, and get them working in PHL. When planes reduce their gate time - they INCREASE their air time. And a plane sitting at the gate(whether it is due to atc/weather/mechanical or just lazy workers who don't care anymore) is NOT making money! GET THE PLANES MOVING YOU NUMBSKULLS!

Until we get this fixed, there is no hope for US.

 

[GadgetFreak]

The bags are a more serious concern to me. 1000 per day? I dont really know what one would expect for an operation that large. Is that a lot?

I do know I have always despised flying in and out of there. I have taken 767s from London to PIT then back to NY rather than take the A330 because it would mean flying through PHL. I had a flight through there a few years ago before the F terminal was in and our Dash8 was really late getting in from LGA (pretty typical) and they didnt send a bus for us. We must have been sitting there for more than 20 minutes waiting for the bus. Everyone was late for connections and there were 3 US1s on their cell phones to the CP desk asking if they can help get us off the plane. This wasnt really atypical in my experience of a lot of segments through there. Apart from annoying people it must cost US a pretty good wad of cash to deal with all those misconnects and lost baggage.

To me, it's typical in PHL when my incoming flight is really late is to have someone at the gate waiting and when I tell them my flight they say you probably wont make that. In PIT it is having a cart waiting to take me to my next flight because they know Im connecting late. That sort of sums up the two sites for me. The joke was though that it was okay if your flight into PHL was late because the flight going out wouldnt leave on time anyway.

 

[El Gato]

Well said. PHL is also chronically short on gate agents to greet and depart flights, all the time. Not unusual for a flight to come in and see them have to wait 15-30 minutes for someone to drive the jetway and hook them up......of course it is taking even longer for the bags to get unloaded/loaded due to a lack of movement amongst some rampers(I guess this is what the defibrillators are in the terminal for now!).

All the pay cuts, furloughs, work rule changes, etc. etc. won't be worth a damn if something isn't done about PHL workers and fast!

 

[etops1]

i e-mailed seigel just about an hr ago and asked him when are we gonna implement parts of the bussines plan that do not need union approval like rolling the hub, and marketing. especially tv ads. also what you guys are talking about right now. he just responded and said that they are going to spend a lot of money in phl shortly adressing all these issues especially on the marketing front. so get ready.

 

[ktflyhome]

'El Gata: You are in may own opinion, absotlutely correct in your last 2 posts. I hve seen it and witnessed it. Thank you.

 

[robbedagain]

with the baggage problem in phlly why is it that the 1020 dash from phl is always loaded to around 50 something daily when it is booke to roughly in or around the 20s pax wise? i would think that the weight and balance issue is soemthing serious isnt it?

 

[sfb]

I was told come May,we do not have enough gates to handle the additional flights in PHL.

I can't see how US "needs" additional gates in May, even if they increase mainline flying from PHL by 20%. I checked the US Airways timetable from Summer, 1998, and PHL had 239 mainline departures (note that this predates A-West *and* Terminal F). The current fact sheet says US offers 195 daily mainline departures -- so they managed an operation that was 22% larger with fewer gates six years ago.

 

[PITbull]

i e-mailed seigel just about an hr ago and asked him when are we gonna implement parts of the bussines plan that do not need union approval like rolling the hub, and marketing. especially tv ads. also what you guys are talking about right now. he just responded and said that they are going to spend a lot of money in phl shortly adressing all these issues especially on the marketing front. so get ready.

The better question to ask is WHAT TOOK SO LONG AND WHY WAS THIS NOT IMPLEMENTED YESTERDAY, LAST MONTH, LAST YEAR?????

Or is this too tuff of a question for senior managment to answer...

Oh, wait, I remember the answer to this....their plan didn't work because the world just changed too fast....yea, that's it LOL......

sfb,

You are correct with your facts. We use to have approx 405 a/c. We now have 279 because of the downsizing of our airline.

 

[tadjr]

I(note that this predates A-West *and* Terminal F).

F is ALL commuters so that has nothing to do with any mainline flights (Are the E70s going to the F terminal in PHL?)

A West flights used to be on A East. I dont think we use any/many of the A East gates anymore. The last couple times I've been thru PHL and sat for a while, I didnt see any US planes there. Also almost all of the International inbound flights are on A West (except precleared) and some of them sit for a little while so there may be a problem with gates in this regard. Last time in PHL there were a couple of domestic flights (Intl inbound rotation of aircraft) parked at A West.
I guess if they are going to try to cram more flights in certain banks there could be a gate problem. I would hope that the "We are going to implement a rolling hub in PHL and the scheduling is being planned" would take effect in May at the latest. What is taking so long? They change schedules every time someone sneezes so there has got to be a reason.
Can any crew tell me how far your bid has been completed for? Apr/May/Jun?

 

[BoeingBoy]

tadjr,

Monthly schedule bids are complete (for blockholders) thru May. The base bids are complete thru July (but could be changed and rebid as late as the end of April for July positions).

Jim