Delta Moves To Philly International Terminal

[brokenwrench]

Delta Moves To Philly International Terminal Despite US Air Protest

Delta has relocated to gates in Philadelphia Airport’s Terminal A-East despite a protest by hub carrier US Airways.
US Airways was concerned that the Delta move would hurt its efforts to boost international flights out of its Philadelphia hub (DAILY, Oct. 26). But the airport said it has been trying to accommodate the needs of all its carriers (DAILY, Oct. 30).
Delta will use three gates in the international terminal, said Phyllis VanIstendal, the airport’s government affairs manager. “One [gate] is reserved for international flights during the peak period each day, so US Airways only loses two of the 17 gates it utilized over the summer,†she explained. ‘Currently, they are only flying 11 daily nonstops to Europe, so they have plenty of excess capacity right now.â€
There is already a shortage of gates of gates in the international terminal, said spokesman Philip Gee. “We plan on growing our international presence in Philadelphia and since the merger, we have already added seven new transatlantic markets,†he noted. “However, we won’t be able to do that if we don’t have the gates to use. We feel that international gates should be used for international flying.â€
The airport is adding an international gate to Terminal A-West and hopes to have it ready for US Airways next summer, said VanIstendal. “This will give them 16 gates for the summer season. Their summer schedule includes 20 daily nonstops to Europe, so we think they will have adequate capacity next summer as well,†she said. “We had earlier planned to add three new gates, but US Airways asked us to start with just one. Of course, we always have our fleet of six passenger transfer vehicles standing by and adequate hard-stand parking positions in the event of a gate shortage.â€
The situation is fine for now, said Gee. “But it will get tricky when we increase our seasonal schedule and when we want to add more routes,†he added. “We are very encouraged with Mayor-elect Nutter and look forward to working with him to come to an agreement.â€
US Airways and the airport continue to work on finding a permanent solution, said VanIstendal. “We are waiting for US Airways to follow up on discussions we held last summer that included plans for the conversion of a Cargo Building into an adjunct international arrivals hall,†she said. -
[email protected]

 

[nycbusdriver]

Of course, we always have our fleet of six passenger transfer vehicles standing by and adequate hard-stand parking positions in the event of a gate shortage.â€￾

Obviously this guy is clueless about what a pain in the a** these vehicles are. The City of Philadelphia ought to rebate each passenger $50 to ride one of those things from the airplane to the terminal.

US Airways and the airport continue to work on finding a permanent solution, said VanIstendal. “We are waiting for US Airways to follow up on discussions we held last summer that included plans for the conversion of a Cargo Building into an adjunct international arrivals hall,â€￾ she said. -
[email protected]

Turning a cargo building into a second international arrivals hall will be a nightmare and a half. It will provide yet another opportunity for the crack team of baggage handlers in PHL to misconnect luggage to ongoing domestic flights.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Deleted duplicate post

 

[galley princess]

I just saw an article somewhere that BWI has an underused international terminal. I know we fled from SWA out of there, but perhaps Mr. Parker and friends should investigate. Any route that isn't flown by UA out of Dulles might work. Any airport has to be better than PHL to operate out of.

 

[LGA777]

Obviously this guy is clueless about what a pain in the a** these vehicles are. The City of Philadelphia ought to rebate each passenger $50 to ride one of those things from the airplane to the terminal.


No disrespect entended nycbusdriver, while they are a pain and I have used them as a passenger on a full inbound 330 from SJU but they are far better than many premier airports in Europe, and other parts of the world that rely on hardstands, airstairs, and ramp level boarding deplaning for many flights. Allow to me to share an example.

On my wife's first trip to Europe in 2003 we arrived LHR from JFK on a full BA 744. All gates in T4 were in use so along with about 10 other arriving BA widebodies we went to the hardstand. We deplaned in a light rain on wet, slippery non-covered airstairs and by the way a 744 sits pretty high off the ground. We crowded on to ramp level busses with no seats, standing, handrails and polls only and it was like being on a NYC subway at rush hour (which I ride all the time) except everyone had carry-on bags. Was about a 10 min ride to the terminal. Once at T4 two sets of stairs to climb with our rollerboards, no elevators in sight.

This scene and similar is repeated all over Europe and the world every day. So with all due respect those pain in the a** PHL Planemates would have been a "very welcome sight" that morning in Heathrow.

All in all a non ideal but tolerable solution when needed.

Respectfully,

LGA777

Ps, just remembered the same senerio minus the rain and my wife at both my HKG arrivals (old airport) on full Cathay 744 arrivals.

 

[trvlr64]

Obviously this guy is clueless about what a pain in the a** these vehicles are. The City of Philadelphia ought to rebate each passenger $50 to ride one of those things from the airplane to the terminal

I had to use these vehicles when I arrived at Narita in Tokyo. And like LGA777 said, image a full 747 being deplaned into these vehicles. And I was in the upper deck and had to carry my luggage off the plane and down the steps into the awaiting vehicles.

And how is it any different when it's raining at DCA and they shuttle you out to the express planes and make you sit and wait there until they're ready to board.

People need to get over this issue. Big deal, you have to deplane and get on an awaiting vehicle to take you to the terminal. If you want to get really fussy about this then get rid of the shuttle that runs between C16 and the F terminal in PHL. That's just a big pain in the A$$ too.

 

[RowUnderDCA]

Obviously this guy is clueless about what a pain in the a** these vehicles are. The City of Philadelphia ought to rebate each passenger $50 to ride one of those things from the airplane to the terminal.

I kind of like them if you have enough and they take you directly to immigration. It's great to have three or so serving one incoming aircraft. You can have one dedicated to first at a forward door and another for economy. And if you have enough, they can be lined up: two go off and two dock.

 

[Non Rev]

I've used the plane to gate shuttles all over Europe and have never had an issue. As many times as Ive been to FRA I cant remember ever using a jetway, its always been remote.

Can't comment on the PHL situation as I've always boarded via jetways. But knowing how PHL is I bet there could be issues.

 

[Travelpro72]

If I had a quarter for every time I arrived in MAN on the A330 without a gate I'd be rich. We were forever parking at the hardstand with busses taking passengers to the terminal. The A330 isn't exactly low to the ground either. The deal with Delta in PHL is done so US best think of what they plan to do and quick. I'm seeing people movers. What else could they do besides use some of the "B" gates. To me the latter would be a mess.

 

[Coffee_Tea_Or_Me]

If I had a quarter for every time I arrived in MAN on the A330 without a gate I'd be rich. We were forever parking at the hardstand with busses taking passengers to the terminal. The A330 isn't exactly low to the ground either. The deal with Delta in PHL is done so US best think of what they plan to do and quick. I'm seeing people movers. What else could they do besides use some of the "B" gates. To me the latter would be a mess.

Some of the 757s could go out of B -- and since US uses a lot of those these days, I could see that happening. I also envision a complete overhaul of the schedule in terms of times. If US keeps LGW, I could see that becoming a morning flight -- I can see a lot of flights having much later departure times, like the 10 pm or so to LHR....

 

[FWAAA]

If I had a quarter for every time I arrived in MAN on the A330 without a gate I'd be rich. We were forever parking at the hardstand with busses taking passengers to the terminal. The A330 isn't exactly low to the ground either. The deal with Delta in PHL is done so US best think of what they plan to do and quick. I'm seeing people movers. What else could they do besides use some of the "B" gates. To me the latter would be a mess.

The real issue is that the US braintrust needs to travel to ORD and see how AA and UA manage to unload each and every one of their international arrivals (those not pre-cleared at the foreign departure point) at the international terminal and then almost immediately tow their airplane to their domestic terminal for their international departure. The ORD international terminal is a mere 21 gates, and numerous foreign carriers use it for arrivals and departures. Some carriers, like LH and IB, use their alliance partners' domestic terminals for departures, but all in all, the T-5 at ORD is much more efficiently utilised than is the international terminal at PHL. Empty it, let CPB inspect it, and TOW it. US learns how to do that - US can easily double its international deparutes at PHL.

Instead, all Dougweiser could do was issue empty, childish threats to pull the China flight unless he was able to block DL's move and thus, get what he really wanted, which was to prevent WN from getting more gates. I imagine that Sen Spector and the PHL officials don't think much of the lying punk CEO's behavior. Can't blame them.

 

[EMBFA]

I've done the deplane onto busses/people movers from a full 747. The process takes about as long as the majority of US Airways flights.

 

[phlus2]

Delta Moves To Philly International Terminal Despite US Air Protest

Delta has relocated to gates in Philadelphia Airport’s Terminal A-East despite a protest by hub carrier US Airways.

So here is what doesn't make any sense - BA in Phila uses one gate for 2 daily flights - the first one comes and goes, then second one comes and goes.

So if BA can manage this, why can't this joke of an airline? Or maybe that is really a rhetorical question?

If the brain trust in Tempe could manage to get their operations in order, they could in essence double the number of gates they have in Phila. by turning two flights a day out of each gate, and even increase capacity even more if they could get it together to move some departures to B/C for international flights.

 

[Travelpro72]

Brain trust in Tempe? Your dealing with an airline that can't get a catering truck to the a/c, liquid in the lavs and have mad scientists out there working on the worlds best airline beverage cart. They'd NEVER be able to map that out and execute such a dance of aircraft. We are run by morons.....rejects of the airline industry.

 

[US1YFARE]

The process takes about as long as the majority of US Airways flights.

and usually 1/2 as miserable