Phl Hub Perf

[dc3fanatic]

I've seen alot of negative comments on the boards in regards to PHL performance.

Is it true that back in February the hub went to a 'rolling hub'? Out of curiosity, how many other hubs (not just US Airways) have made this transition? Has it been more or less smooth? And how do you know?

I'm interested in everyone's thoughts.

 

[MarkMyWords]

dc3 -

I have been a staunch advocate of going to the rolling hub in PHL for years. It just seemed to make sense from all aspects. With a banking hub we were our own worst enemy by forcing in all kinds of traffic in one hour and none in the next. With increased taxi times you were burning more fuel and operating less efficiently. By rolling the hub, we were able to reduce fuel expenses with reduced taxi times, improve aircraft, crew, gate and ground employee utilization. By just rolling the PHL hub we were able to add the equivilant of 25 airplanes worth of flying to the system without adding one additionial airplane. From and operating stand point, when we do get into a ground delay program or ground stop, if a flight takes an hour delay, we are no longer misconnecting the entire airplane full of people since connections are spread out over a longer period of time and we offer service to most cities every 2-3 hours. In my view, rolling the PHL hub has been a tremendous improvement.

As for what other airlines have adopted the rolling hub concept, AA has a rolling hub in ORD and DFW. DL has rolled their ATL hub. To some degree, WN utilizes a rolling hub concept in all of their larger stations. While they don't consider them "traditional hubs" they do offer connecting opportunities.

With the level of flying in CLT exceeding 500 flights a day, it may not be a bad idea to try and roll CLT as well. While CLT does not have the level of O & D traffic or ATC issues that PHL has, it may not be a bad idea to roll CLT to some degree to again improve efficiency.

Hope that helps....

 

[dc3fanatic]

ok, and would anyone be willing to say the rolling hub in PHL was well executed?

 

[tadjr]

What part of the rolling hub? The actual scheduling? Yes it is better than before. With normal ops (no weather?ATC involved) it works great and like MMW said, even if you are a little late, you dont bust all the conx. Now, if the PHL station actually had the equipment and staffing that a station of that size and of that importance required, I would say it would have been a tremendous success vs the old bank system.

Does anyone know how many of our planes actually transit PHL in a single day? If I have the time tonight I will check it out since THAT is also going to be a factor into how well the rolling hub works as well and might lend credence to the AA plan of isolating planes to certain hubs in the event of a bad ATC/weather day.

 

[dc3fanatic]

What part of the rolling hub? The actual scheduling? Yes it is better than before. With normal ops (no weather?ATC involved) it works great and like MMW said, even if you are a little late, you dont bust all the conx. Now, if the PHL station actually had the equipment and staffing that a station of that size and of that importance required, I would say it would have been a tremendous success vs the old bank system.

Does anyone know how many of our planes actually transit PHL in a single day? If I have the time tonight I will check it out since THAT is also going to be a factor into how well the rolling hub works as well and might lend credence to the AA plan of isolating planes to certain hubs in the event of a bad ATC/weather day.

[post="284368"][/post]​

Not to be rude, but equipment and staffing takes money. Last time I checked, a company in banktruptcy doesn't normally have an abundance of money.

 

[crushed]

Not to be rude, but equipment and staffing takes money. Last time I checked, a company in banktruptcy doesn't normally have an abundance of money.

[post="284370"][/post]​

Not to be rude, but lack of equipment and staffing COSTS money. Last time I checked a company in banktrupcy doesn't normally have an abundance of money.

 

[USA320Pilot]

From my perspective, PHL's operations have improved, but it has a way to go to be where it should be. The rolling hub, increased use of runway 17/35, better ATC/US Airways/Airport Authority coordination, and increased staffing have all helped.

With a stronger balance sheet, I believe the company can invest more resources in PHL to improve the product.

Regards,

USA320Pilot

 

[dc3fanatic]

Not to be rude, but lack of equipment and staffing COSTS money. Last time I checked a company in banktrupcy doesn't normally have an abundance of money.

[post="284372"][/post]​

US Airways has probably been running lean because they have had to.

In retrospect, I think I understand the point you are trying to make, but you should really expand on it a bit.

Wouldn't it be great if you could always overstaff and have lots of shiny new equipment?

btw, overstaffing, rightstaffing and understaffing can be defined differently by different people.

 

[luvthe9]

I think PHL has been running much better than it use to, other than your thunder storm delays.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Using data from the DOT's air travel consumer report, one can calculate the average OT arrival & departure percentages for PHL since rolling that hub to the same months from 2004. First, though, a couple of cautions:

1 - The latest DOT report is for May, so only 4 months of data are available (Feb thru May). Weather could play a role in that fairly short period - 12 months data would be better.

2 - While arrival OT performance is broken down by airline, departure OT performance is not and is thus for all carriers serving PHL.

3 - For arrival OT performance, US figures only include mainline & MDA. PDT, PSA, ALG (in 2004), and the affiliates operating our flights into and out of PHL report to the DOT separately since they operate on separate certificates.

Now the results:

Average arrival OT (within 14 minutes) percentage @ PHL for US Feb-May:
2005 74.4%
2004 79.0%

Average departure OT percentage @ PHL for all carriers Feb-May:
2005 73.1%
2004 78.5%

Jim

 

[SoftLanding]

Using data from the DOT's air travel consumer report, one can calculate the average OT arrival & departure percentages for PHL since rolling that hub to the same months from 2004. First, though, a couple of cautions:

1 - The latest DOT report is for May, so only 4 months of data are available (Feb thru May). Weather could play a role in that fairly short period - 12 months data would be better.

2 - While arrival OT performance is broken down by airline, departure OT performance is not and is thus for all carriers serving PHL.

3 - For arrival OT performance, US figures only include mainline & MDA. PDT, PSA, ALG (in 2004), and the affiliates operating our flights into and out of PHL report to the DOT separately since they operate on separate certificates.

Now the results:

Average arrival OT (within 14 minutes) percentage @ PHL for US Feb-May:
2005 74.4%
2004 79.0%

Average departure OT percentage @ PHL for all carriers Feb-May:
2005 73.1%
2004 78.5%

Jim

[post="284385"][/post]​

Sure looks to me the PHL rolling hub concept is working...not!

Have seen improvements at certain times of the day, like the 8-10AM push, though 8-10PM still seeing problems.

We (US Airways) have added too many seats, most likely, out of PHL to compete against LUV, especially FLA markets.

This will most likely change to better utilize seats matched against demand, with the idea being trying to improve yield, serve more of our core passengers, if we have any...LOL

America West will have full control soon, so we'll see.

 

[usairways85]

Well in that same time period, the flts might have been rolled but with 40 some flts added by WN each day and probably that same number by US...all in all 80-100 flts a day were added to the airport within a year.

 

[MarkMyWords]

I'd love to see what type of cost savings we have been able to achieve with the changes in the PHL hub. Shorter taxi times, increased a/c and personnel productivity, etc.

This summer has been horrible when it comes to ATC / Weather issues. It seems there is a GDP for PHL / LGA / EWR / etc almost every day. I still believe that if we still had a banking hub, we would have faired worse then we are currently operating. US Airways85 did hit the nail on the head. US added nearly 60 flights a day to the PHL schedule while WN added an additional 40. Add 100 additional flights to an already piss-poor operating airport and you are going to see little improvment. In the fall schedule, PHL operations will be reduced by nearly 40 flights per day. Add to that improvements in scheduling crews and aircraft and hopefully we are on the right track to improving the PHL operation as well as system wide operations.

I still stand behind the fact that the PHL rolling hub is far better then the banking hub.

 

[Hope777]

Mark, I havent looked at the fall PHL schedule, but you say we are removing 40 or so flights. Are any of those going to Express, thus not changing a damm thing?

 

[MarkMyWords]

No......the last schedule I saw reduce total flying in PHL by about 40 flights a day. I believe CLT flying will be reduced by about 40 flights a day also. In CLT most of the reduction is coming from the loss of the 11p bank of flights.