Aging Philly Airport Bogs Down Flights

Associated Press ^ | Nov 20 04:04 PM US/Eastern | PATRICK WALTERS

[kvanbrunt2]

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - In a terrible year for flight delays nationwide, this city's outdated airport has become a hub of the East Coast maelstrom. Holiday travelers from Maine to Florida shouldn't hold their breath, either. It could be decades before passengers see significant improvements at Philadelphia International Airport, routinely one of the nation's most delayed.

Federal Aviation Administration officials, airlines, air traffic controllers and others say Philadelphia plays a major role in delays up and down the coast thanks to poor airport design, bad weather, heavy traffic and close proximity to New York.

[kvanbrunt2]

Hit piece from ATC person who wants to allow planes to take off over houses where they now take off over the Delaware River. 99% of the wind flows SSW along the river. The rational for allowing the take-offs to fly over houses has yet to make sense to me. The "aging" (scare quotes) airport is pretty good with take-offs but may have problems with landings. (so why change the take-off pattern?) but i think the problem is more related to airport operations guided by the usual union/government thugs. (what happended to the spell checker?)

[USNBandit]

One of the interesting statements I heard from the ATC union mouthpiece was how releasing military airspace wouldn't help the issue on the East Coast.

Here in the West Oakland Center has been pulling our high altitude airspace for years on the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving.

[Vigilanteman]

I was there just last week. The facility itself is actually almost as nice as PITTSBURGH with fairly smooth traffic patterns in and out of the airport. The main problem I noticed is the drones manning the TSA checkpoints.

[Malsua]

I’ve flown 36 times this year, mostly out of Newark but 4 times out of Philly. If I had to choose between my flights out of Newark and my flights out of the mess that is the Philly airport, I’ll take Newark every time.

I LOATHE the rabbit warren in Philly.

[Popman]

Hit piece

Not hardly !!!

Philadelphia International Airport has major problems. I was stuck there for 5 hours a few weeks ago

The trip out to take off was like 45 minutes long

I thought we we taking off from JFK it took so long to taxi out

[Jorge]

I've been flying out of Philly for years and have experienced very few delays.
Guess I've just been lucky.

[Big E]

The Philly airport is the worst airport I’ve had the misfortune of flying from. Lousy parking, late flights, huge lines at security, whatta mess. I drive an extra hour to BWI, and almost always save time as Southwest has all sorts of non-stop flights out of there, and they’re nearly always on time.

[P.O.E.]

The staff at Atlanta have to be the worst. Sorry, Philly, you lose again.

[Clemenza]

Let the schlubs in sh-tholes like Gray’s Ferry and Chester deal with it!