Waiting in Philly
Anyone who travels will nod their head when they read today's report that Philadelphia International Airport ranked last in on-time performance.
That's right, last of the nation's 33 largest airports.
Blame U.S. Airways or whatever you want, but it never fails that the Philadelphia airport experience is anything but smooth.
Why is Philadelphia the only airport I fly into that can't open the gates for early arrivals? Even if you're on-time you sit and wait until the gates can be operated.
There are direct flights from University Park Airport to Cincinnati, Detroit, Washington Dulles, Pittsburgh (one flight) and Philadelphia. The Philly flight is the one I try to avoid, because I like to get where I'm going.
Nothing in this report surprises me.
To relieve the PHL congestion the FAA must implement a slot rule and then would control the amount flights the airport can operate per hour. Currently, the airlines call shots. Since USAIR controls the most gates they crowd out the other carriers and delay flights nation wide. What's going on at LVIA?
About 25 percent of Lehigh Valley residents use New York airports and 25 to 30 percent use the Philadelphia airport, I wonder how many more residents from Upper Bucks and Montgomery Counties are tired of driving over an hour to PHL then sit on the tarmac waiting to take off?
www.phl-caw.org
Posted by: Stephen Donato | Tuesday, May 09, 2006 at 09:35 PM
This type of stuff is precisely why I am looking forward to what I hope will be a very efficient air-taxi service that will allow me to fly out of my local municipal airport. As it is, I have to drive 45 minutes to the major airport, wait 1-2 hours to jump through all the hoops - only to find out my flight is delayed for whatever reason. It is getting so bad but it is a necessary evil.
Posted by: Brandi | Tuesday, August 08, 2006 at 09:34 PM