hack73 said:
US Air is adding 40 more flights in PHL next week,and they are not adding on any additional help to accomadate this.
By the end of summer,with ATC delays and misconnect luggage,we will bury ourselves.Their is no way on earth that PHL can handle all of the additional air traffic that is coming.I hope that I am wrong,but I don't think so.Who knows,maybe Baldanza has an in on the pizza concessions!
Where did you read that we were adding 40 additional flights to PHL this week? We did add a FEW flights as a competitive response to WN's flights, but not 40. This is copied from theHub, "May 2, US Airways increases flight frequencies on the five routes from Philadelphia that Southwest intends to begin on May 9. We've added two daily flights to Chicago O'Hare for a total of eight; and two to Providence for a total of seven. One daily flight is being added to Orlando, Las Vegas and Phoenix for a total of 10, 6 and 4 respectively."
There are also other big changes in store for PHL (also quoted from theHub):
In operations, we have been
seeking creative ways to eliminate airfield bottlenecks. An analysis found that we had not been fully utilizing the secondary runways, particularly by regional jets and turboprops, which meant that these aircraft added volume to already crowded primary runways. We've identified those aircraft that can use the secondary runways, established goals for each US Airways Express carrier and have begun measuring usage on a daily basis with improving results. We have also
started an initiative for mainline jets to take off and land on one of these secondary runways.
Furthermore the flight schedule for May has been revised so there will be
more separation time between the most congested banks, and
increases to certain minimum connecting times. In terms of manpower,
the equivalent of 40 full-time employees is being added, primarily on the ramp, but also at the gates and ticket counters.
Station management has changed, as has the management structure to be more responsive to the shifting needs of the daily operation. Also,
additional self-service check-in kiosks have been installed in the walkways from the parking garage to the terminal, the international ticket counter and at US Airways Express;
more electric carts are being added; and PHL's
wheelchair allocation has been increased about 20 percent.
Finally,
a project to improve baggage handling for international recheck bags and bring redundancy and reliability to our B-C baggage system kicked off last week. A project to
refurbish waiting room seats is nearly complete, and over the summer, we will be improving the appearance of our B and C gate areas with
new carpeting, wall coverings and other enhancements.
These are all positive steps and are what we have been crying for all along. We definitly need more of this type of thinking system wide
