It's Rough At Orf

[Heinrich]

8am flight to Charlotte 3 hours late today

7:30am flight to PHL canceled today 475 (first 737 out of the day) and cancelled tomorrow too

Laguardia flights delayed by hours

sheesh my coworkers are going to kill me for recommending this airline! Are there weather issues? That flight 475 seems to be at least 60-70% full if not 100% I dont care what day of the week this isn't cheap!

 

[700UW]

I flew from DCA to CLT, real rough turbulence and lots of rain on the east coast I was told.

 

[tadjr]

Looking at the PHL flight screen, everything that went through there today after about 3pm was either cancelled or ran late, very late....nasty day all around.
At one time today there were ground stops or Flow Controls in place for BWI/IAD/DCA/PHL/LGA/EWR/BOS/ORD/ATL just to name what I can remember. I have no doubt that the storms on the entire East Coast have added to the mess. I just hope that someone planned on it this year after the excuses from last years storms. We'll see when they send the press release if they learned anything...

 

[Prince of PAWOBs]

You know, it's been rough this week system wide with the weather. On the whole, though, the outstations have done a very good job with making sure that baggage gets where it's going. There is, of course, one exception to the great job that has been done.

Maybe I shouldn't mention the station (Erie, PA), because it might seem like I have a grudge to bear (Erie, PA), and I wouldn't want to come off looking like I was singling out a certain group of people (Erie, PA), even though they could try a bit harder to actually reroute baggage properly (Erie, PA), and maybe treat other stations and the hubs with a little more respect.

Alas, it's not to be. Oh well......guess I'll just have to get out my rush tags and magic markers and prepare for more fun this week.

Thank you, oh nameless station! You give me a reason to go to work each day.

 

[FM2436]

8am flight to Charlotte 3 hours late today

7:30am flight to PHL canceled today 475 (first 737 out of the day) and cancelled tomorrow too

Laguardia flights delayed by hours

sheesh my coworkers are going to kill me for recommending this airline! Are there weather issues? That flight 475 seems to be at least 60-70% full if not 100% I dont care what day of the week this isn't cheap!

Heinrich:

Yesterday was a weather mess in and around Washington up into New York. The ground stops and/or flow controls jadjr mentions are all FAA ATC imposed. Not the airlines fault as many passengers seem to believe.

A good FAA Web Page to track large hub airport delays is the FAA's Air Traffic Control Command Center. Move your curser and click onto any of the airports shown and you'll get information concerning that airport and/or any other airport's delay that may effect your departing or arriving airport.

http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp

 

[nycbusdriver]

Not specifically aimed at ORF, but the company is likely having to cancel flights due to lack of crews, especially when weather causes on-duty crews to go illegal to continue past the next landing.

The crew complement is barely adequate to cover things when the schedule runs like a Swiss watch. In many crew bases, there are NO pilot reserves for particular seats several times a week. IOW, if a scheduled pilot cannot make the flight for whatever reason, there is no one to take that pilot's place. The result is usually several cancellations.

 

[Heinrich]

That's what I'm seeing - the last flight of the day into ORF goes BOS-PHL-ORF then at 7:35AM starts up to PHL. On those horrible weather days it's getting cancelled in the morning. Regularly, or runs an hour or so late while the crew rests. Surprised there's no alternative, or that they can't see an alternative coming at 8PM the prior night and stick a crew on another plane from CLT or LGA or wherever. Of course I only see things from a tiny microcosm and I don't see the times there is a "crew rescue" that works out but I do know that 475 is important to ORF passengers and this flight is a regular problem due to crew rest.

 

[nycbusdriver]

...Surprised there's no alternative, or that they can't see an alternative coming at 8PM the prior night and stick a crew on another plane from CLT or LGA or wherever....

What I'm saying is that there are no crews to stick on a flight from CLT or LGA or anywhere else. The company flat-out runs out of crews several days a week and there is no alternative. The refuse to up the pilot staffing and would rather piss off countless customers than call back furloughees.

 

[unit4clt]

Prince pawob,

You should not let these types of things get to you. Your Management knew the level of service would drop to these unexceptable levels, when they made the decision to transfer mainline flying to the RJS. With Mainline flights gone so did most of the workers, many with 20 or more years of service.

No matter how good your training program; experience ,knowledge, and commitment is hard to replace. As well as market share, much easier to lose than pick up.

 

[FM2436]

According to FAA's Air Traffic Control Command Center web page as of 9:09 AM, PHL is the only large hub airport in the Country experiencing any delays (gate holds, multi-taxi 15 to 30 minutes).

http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp

 

[Prince of PAWOBs]

Unit,

I'll agree that using only express flights into and out of ERI is a mistake, but regardless of that error, bags MUST BE PROPERLY REROUTED, not dumped on the destination hub to sort out if and/or when they arrive. ROA doesn't screw over hubs. PIT doesn't screw over PHL and CLT. If ERI is going to run itself like PHL does, then make them a hub instead of PIT and watch the company sink faster than a lead zeppelin.

 

[<./']>]

In case you haven't noticed, it has been raining daily in the NE. Every day ATC has delayed or ground stopped most of the flights after 2pm. This causes flights to operate behind schedule and crews to run out to the max duty/flight time limits. With the reduced head counts on the property these days, the airline doesn't have a buffer to catch up after 3 weeks of these weather conditions.