Is anyone else out there just a little nervous about the emphasis that seems to be placed on PHL in the new US? From equipment problems, on time performance, baggage problems, and employee morale there is alot depending on how PHL comes through. We've all heard the stories coming out of PHL: Equipment sabotoge, employee harassment, and even manager intimidation. I don't know how true any of that is but I do hope the guys in PHL know how much is riding on all this. I'm not slamming PHL as I have friends who work the ramp there but I was just wondering how other people feel about it. As for PHL, step up guys. Southwest is right around the corner and we're all counting on you!
Depending On Phl?
- Thread starter psadude
- Start date
EricLv2Fish
Veteran
- Aug 25, 2005
- 1,171
- 5
Merger is only weeks old. New management is aware of equipment problems and it has been reported equipment is on the way. Will it be enough in time? Will employee morale improve enough to find solid work arounds equipment shortages? Will the management inplace empower employees to find and implement work arounds? Will unions cooperate? Stay tuned. The next couple of months will be interesting.
Management BETTER be more than aware of the problems that exist in FILTHY/ opps did I say that!? Hopefully that place gets a thorough scrubbing from Top to Bottom. The carpets are beyond words.......putting muratic acid in a floor scrubber would be a start though. I commend the ground personnel that do there job there on a daily basis in deplorable conditions (there are times that place is so despicable you would think you are in a third world country). And to think that is the Big Enchilada/ The MotherLode/ Principal Gateway........the City should be embarassed to have such a ghettolike airport. (Anyone who doesn't agree needs to see an Eye Doctor.... I go through there too often on a trip I feel like I become a science experiment). If Parker and his regieme turn that place around and address the attitudes he may warrant a Nobel Peace Award. I'll say a prayer and like the saying goes, "Rome wasn't built in a Day".
PHL is a cash cow, despite it's abysmal on time performance and employee morale. As to the dirty conditions, there is a gate in concourse B that is the model of what the new gates will look like as a rennovation gets underway.
BoeingBoy
Veteran
- Nov 9, 2003
- 16,512
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Ya know, I keep seeing this claim. It'd be nice to see something to show that the revenue equals profits.
Lehman Brothers' analysis of LCC shows that PHL has the lowest yield of any hub, focus city, or "off-hub" operation in the US/East system - both for local traffic (12.39 cents) and connecting traffic (10.59 cents). Phl also has the lowest RASM of any hub, focus city, or "off-hub" operation in the US/East system (8.72 cents).
No doubt the revenue numbers for PHL look good, but revenue is just a function of market size, hub size, and percent of market captured. Over 29% of our ASM's originate or terminate in PHL, but losing nearly 2 cents per ASM (using 2Q05 mainline CASM) or over 3 cents per ASM (Aug05 system CASM) to milk that "cash cow" seems a little foolish.
Jim
Put a new dress on it, some lipstick and a tube of Preparation H and it's still a pain in the A*s. Some things will never change. It seem most money we take in the front door there, immediately goes out the back upon arrival at the destination cities with irate passengers, missing and pilfered bags, international misconnects that have to stay in hotels for several days, and DBC's we have to taxi to various cities. I have yet to speak with any customers who have a "Love" for that place. Except, of course, the city and airport officials who seem to bring their family's to the West Coast for a lot of vacations.
:down: Last month coming through phl,i was waiting for a psa flight and i walked to the end of the concourse and then spotted the crj rounding the corner heading for the ramp area.As i walked past an employee room,i could hear yelling & laughing from 3-4 workers.The crj was stopped on the tarmac waiting for someone to guide him in.About 4-5 minutes later,one slovenly dressed worked slowly strolls out and parks the plane after sitting with engines running.no sense of pride or urgency on the part of the worker.
This must be repeated many times during the day and last time through phl,an express gate employee ignored me as i stood still all alone waiting for some info.She finally looked up and said someone else can help you.
Not all,but many phl employees have a poor attitude and are downright rude.
This must be repeated many times during the day and last time through phl,an express gate employee ignored me as i stood still all alone waiting for some info.She finally looked up and said someone else can help you.
Not all,but many phl employees have a poor attitude and are downright rude.
delldude
Veteran
How bad do things have to get in PHL in order for them to look elsewhere? I would like to think that the ACAA would talk to US with an open mind now that there's new management. The infrastructure and physical runway constraints coupled with PHL's seat under NY and DC airspace insure that it will never operate as efficiently as it needs to. PIT on the other hand is situated very well physically to operate as a hub.
As I have said elsewhere, PHL cannot remain status quo. I have seen that PHL will be given the tools it needs--equipment and I believe more staffing. If this does not improve the situation, what can they do?
Like Boeing Boy, I also keep hearing that PHL is a cash cow. Well guess what? The cow can move---I believe that where the international traffic goes, the revenue will follow. If some of the Caribbean and TransAtlantic flights move back to PIT or elsewhere, the money will more than likely follow them.
How bad does it have to be when I check in for a flight and the agent offers me a slightly earlier flight, then says to me, "Oh, sorry that's through PHL--you don't want to do THAT do you?"
I am very friendly with MANY of the fine employees at PHL, but the combination of years of neglect, physical constraints, and yes, the "Philly Tude" appear to be capable of causing the perfect storm there.......
I honestly hope that the infusion of resources helps there......
My best to you all.......
As I have said elsewhere, PHL cannot remain status quo. I have seen that PHL will be given the tools it needs--equipment and I believe more staffing. If this does not improve the situation, what can they do?
Like Boeing Boy, I also keep hearing that PHL is a cash cow. Well guess what? The cow can move---I believe that where the international traffic goes, the revenue will follow. If some of the Caribbean and TransAtlantic flights move back to PIT or elsewhere, the money will more than likely follow them.
How bad does it have to be when I check in for a flight and the agent offers me a slightly earlier flight, then says to me, "Oh, sorry that's through PHL--you don't want to do THAT do you?"
I am very friendly with MANY of the fine employees at PHL, but the combination of years of neglect, physical constraints, and yes, the "Philly Tude" appear to be capable of causing the perfect storm there.......
I honestly hope that the infusion of resources helps there......
My best to you all.......
BoeingBoy
Veteran
- Nov 9, 2003
- 16,512
- 5,865
with U management running it thats to be expected jim..
I'll agree with you that that's part of the reason.....
PHL also has more true low cost competition than the other hubs, primarily WN who says they're going to continue expanding there and anticipates getting more gates.
Then, as I've mentioned a couple of times before, the proximity to NYC & DC eliminates some relatively high average yield O&D traffic that most any other city would have.
To illustrate the depth of the problem, if Parker can find some way to operate PHL at HP's 2Q05 system CASM (a very big if), it would be about a break-even operation.
The obvious solution is to downsize/eliminate unprofitable flying at PHL and better match capacity with higher yield demand for services that WN doesn't offer (FC, interline, international, etc), which is apparently what Parker has done in PHX/LAS.
Jim
When the previous management (intentionally spelled in lower case, as a sign of NO RESPECT) embarked on the Grrrrrrrreat Philly Debacle, the other airlines must have thought either USAirways is more foolish than we thought (this still keeps me awake at night) or did those inbreds find 'The Holy Grail' and Amelia Earhardt!? I don't need ANYONE to remind me that Phillie is the 4/5th largest city in the nation.....we are not collecting data for The Guinness Book (I sure as hell couldn't care less), the airport CAN NOT handle the traffic that we have dumped into there at the expense of BWI and PIT. BWI was a nice operation but we gave that to swa lock/stock & barrel. PIT was a case of the County and the Airline not being reasonable to work together and try to come to an amicable arrangement. When you have at your fingertips a facility that consistently ranks in the Top Ten airports of the World, WHY in the heck would you walk away from it (unless of course Customer Service has no place in your Business model). It is well documented that the demographics of PIT could not justify a HUB......maybe so, but forcing connecting pax to transfer in an airport like PHL is comparable to swimming from Queens to Manhattan with the East River under assult from the Coast Guard. Business travellers will only put up with this bulls*** so long and the general public have ISSUES that only fester in a place like PHL.
SpinDoc
Veteran
Jim:
No amount of rational, credible information
is going to appeal to anyone in the
executive suite at US or HP, at least not
in the short term. Long ago, US decided
to put their eggs in one basket, the PHL
basket, and most of the eggs are rotten.
Someone seriously needs to mail a
copy of this study to Doug Parker.
Maybe someone from the ACAA
should do so, along with a new contract
with lower fees for PIT leases.
That might convince the new US to
go back to PIT as a hub.
Personally, I expect U to continue downsizing mainline, and expanding express.
I would not be surprised to see PHL downsize to a focus city to capture the O&D and the transfer flying to shift to CLT, or RJ point-to-point.
The new management has no loyalties to PHL, and they can add and subtract. I'm guessing the costs of PHL go a long way to offsetting revenues.
I would not be surprised to see PHL downsize to a focus city to capture the O&D and the transfer flying to shift to CLT, or RJ point-to-point.
The new management has no loyalties to PHL, and they can add and subtract. I'm guessing the costs of PHL go a long way to offsetting revenues.
I agree dio, regarding your PHL and CLT predictions. Anyway, I bet management is thinking that the next PIT will be ORD or DTW.
PA18
Senior
- Aug 12, 2004
- 398
- 9
Another solution might be to eliminate the necessity of having every passenger traveling from the Northeast to Florida stop there.
An airplane overflying PHL, at altitude, with a full load of passengers heading south is producing a hell of a lot more revenue -- or at least losing a hell of a lot less money -- than one sitting at the gate in PHL waiting for a jetway driver, while its passengers' connecting flights to Florida are departing without them three concourses over.
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