Delays Ease at Philly Airport
Delays Ease at Philly AirportHundreds Stranded by Weather, Construction
August 9, 2007 - Flight delays eased on Friday after a day in which hundreds of travelers were left stranded at Philadelphia International Airport.
According to airport officials, nine out of ten flights were on-time today.
US Airways said 530 flights were cancelled across the country on Thursday. One-hundred-thirty of those were out of Philadelphia. That left hundreds stranded and fed up with what they say is becoming the norm.
Burt Cole spent six hours on a plane on the tarmac to find out hours after that his flight was canceled. "On the runway for six hours, with only one engine going, so the air conditioner was only half working," said Burt. "The toilet started overflowing. They were out of drinks on the airplane. This was U.S. Air. I hope they're watching."
But US Airways insists bad weather coming from the west was the culprit. According to the airline, the weather created a backlog keeping some passengers stranded on the tarmac for up to 6 hours.
Nearly 30 planes were lined up this afternoon, but weren't going anywhere.
"I do travel a lot internationally and I don't think I've seen anything like this before," said Inga Crim of Indianapolis.
As many have seen before at Philadelphia International, weather delays caused the backlog. A scheduled paint job for one runway around noon only made the problem worse. As one US Airways officials put it, the problems just continued to pile up.
"I paid for these tickets, now it's going to cost me $130 to go home and come back. Do you think they're reimbursing us for anything?" said Barbara Barnes of Willingboro.
US Airways says it is trying its best to play catch up, but with the weekend approaching, passengers may find it difficult to find another flight. Some told Action News they couldn't get tickets until Saturday.
"We have opted to drive, which cuts into our vacation because two days are taken up on each side for traveling," said Brady Schurt of Claymont.
"This is getting to be the norm. When you schedule flights now, you better allow yourself extra time for travel. It happens every week," said Phil Goodson of Albany, New York.
Air traffic control instituted a ground delay system, which means flights have been put on a 2-hour delay. Those delays may last well into Friday.
Travelers are being advised to call 1-800-PHL-GATE. You can check the status of any flight here on 6abc.com by clicking here.
Re: Delays Ease at Philly Airport
HAHA this one made me laugh!
"Only one engine was running, so only half the air conditioning was running" HAHAHAH
Re: Delays Ease at Philly Airport
Depending on the airplane and the setup of the packs this might have been the case actually.
Re: Delays Ease at Philly Airport
Quote:
Originally Posted by hiss srq
Depending on the airplane and the setup of the packs this might have been the case actually.
AHAHA, I saw that and had to laugh. Ryan, BS! We know damn well they can run the packs perfectly fine just off the APU.. One engine no prob :P You act like we fly DC-8s
Plus, why must passengers say "we sat on the runway for _ hours" Uhh last time I checked there isn't a single local controller that would allow an aircraft to sit on their runway :roll:
Re: Delays Ease at Philly Airport
Actually Ed, not entirely correct, if I am not mistaken on the 737-200 for example you could only run one pack on the 737-200. I assume this would also apply with the the 100 as well.
Re: Delays Ease at Philly Airport
Quote:
Originally Posted by hiss srq
Actually Ed, not entirely correct, if I am not mistaken on the 737-200 for example you could only run one pack on the 737-200. I assume this would also apply with the the 100 as well.
This is pretty much irrevelant considering just about no one, esepcially the majors, is flying -200's around anymore, let alone -100's. Aircraft such as the 757 and 737 that everyones flying around now a days can easily run both packs on the APU.
Re: Delays Ease at Philly Airport
I had an experience once with PHL flying PHL-SNA back in 2002. There was a line of weather over MXE, which was the only westbound departure fix (still is I believe), and there were almost 70 airplanes sitting around the airport waiting to get out.
We taxied out to a remote taxiway and shut down. The crew opened the flightdeck door and invited me to join them for an hour or so. After 4 and a half hours, some customers wanted to go back, so we went back to the gate, let them off and took on some more fuel. About 2 hours after THAT we finally got off the ground, but of course landed at LAX due to the curfew at SNA.
It was frustrating, but not terrible, and in those days it drew no media attention at all.
My how times have changed.
Re: Delays Ease at Philly Airport
[quote=AA 777]
Quote:
Originally Posted by "hiss srq":30649
Actually Ed, not entirely correct, if I am not mistaken on the 737-200 for example you could only run one pack on the 737-200. I assume this would also apply with the the 100 as well.
This is pretty much irrevelant considering just about no one, esepcially the majors, is flying -200's around anymore, let alone -100's. Aircraft such as the 757 and 737 that everyones flying around now a days can easily run both packs on the APU.[/quote:30649]
Exactly my point, the reason why I mentioned DC-8s in the first place Ryan.
Re: Delays Ease at Philly Airport
Quote:
Originally Posted by Art at ISP
I had an experience once with PHL flying PHL-SNA back in 2002. There was a line of weather over MXE, which was the only westbound departure fix (still is I believe), and there were almost 70 airplanes sitting around the airport waiting to get out.
We taxied out to a remote taxiway and shut down. The crew opened the flightdeck door and invited me to join them for an hour or so. After 4 and a half hours, some customers wanted to go back, so we went back to the gate, let them off and took on some more fuel. About 2 hours after THAT we finally got off the ground, but of course landed at LAX due to the curfew at SNA.
It was frustrating, but not terrible, and in those days it drew no media attention at all.
My how times have changed.
Just about after that time frame they instituted a program called Dual Modena. Which was using MXE and a pair fix known as STOEN. PTW is also used for westbound stuff but MXE is still used for about 80% of westbound departures. It's a damn shame because you can blame it on ZNY and Area A (the area that controls the MXE/STOEN dep, BUNTS Arr) After all they like to shut us down for just about anything. Yet the guys in Area A think it's all Philly's fault and so do the passengers and most industry employees! Bahh
