Are We Ready?

[MarkMyWords]

Well, Tadjr asked this the last time.....and we all know the answer to the last snow storm.

Are we ready for tomorrow's weather?

PIT - 3-6" of snow possible (but PIT is always ready)
PHL - snow changing to rain...up to 3" possible
LGA - snow changing to rain...up to 3" possible
DCA - snow changing to rain
BOS - snow in the evening

While this storm isn't as significant as the other, are we prepared? Are the PHL booms repaired and ready? Do we have a plan of attack in the event we get icing conditions on the change from snow to rain? OR are we just going to sit back and see what happens?

Wagers anyone?

 

[PITbull]

MMW,

PIT is ready as hell. Spoke with crew sched. , everyone is set to go. We are the superior base (sorry, the truth hurts), and we will be ready, anticipate the worst and perform like no other!

Let's take a wager? I bet a party in PIT at Friday's, first round drinks on me. NO mishaps in PIT.

 

[usairways85]

it should be interesting how PHL does tomorrow morning, however the one or two inches PHL does get should be washed out by the heavy rain that is forcasted for the afternoon. Thus temperatures will not be around freezing for much of the day.

 

[flyin2low]

"PIT is ready as hell"

Yeah, the hardest part is getting to the airport on the un-plowed and untreated roads. Once there, the rest is easy, because they do such a great job keeping the runways open during blizzards.............

 

[ClueByFour]

"PIT is ready as hell"

Yeah, the hardest part is getting to the airport on the un-plowed and untreated roads. Once there, the rest is easy, because they do such a great job keeping the runways open during blizzards.............

Where are you coming from?

The only consistantly bad part about the drive to PIT (for me, anyway) was the overpass on 60 where it necks back down from 3 lanes to two outbound and curves slighly to the right (about a mile before the airport interchange outbound). Damn thing always froze waaaay before the road.

Other than that, PIT metro handles snow far better than either PHL metro or (god forbid) CLT metro.

 

[MarkMyWords]

MMW,

PIT is ready as hell. Spoke with crew sched. , everyone is set to go. We are the superior base (sorry, the truth hurts), and we will be ready, anticipate the worst and perform like no other!

Let's take a wager? I bet a party in PIT at Friday's, first round drinks on me. NO mishaps in PIT.

PitBull,

I agree that PIT is ready. My statement wasn't meant sarcastically. I know this is another day in paradise for PIT. It is PHL that I am worried about.

 

[PITbull]

PHL is a problem no matter what. Again, spit on the runway, and you are backed up with traffic. Nothing to do with our people. They perform to the best of their ability in PHL. Problem is traffic.

Divert some of those flights back to us for connections and avoid PHL traffic. We will get customers where they need to go, rain , shine, sleet, snow, throw it all in, we got it covered... magnifico......

 

[MarkMyWords]

Don't I wish we could. Imagine, PHL weather in the tank and we change a ALB-PHL-MCO trip to ALB-PIT-MCO instead. Unfortunately, it isn't that easy. No doubt PIT could handle it volume wise, but being cut to bare bones staffing and facilities wise, it would be tough unless you came in a t an off peak time.

 

[BoeingBoy]

From FAA website at 9:20 EDT Sunday:

Due to WEATHER, LOW CIGS, SNOW, there is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving Philadelphia International Airport, Philadelphia, PA (PHL). This is causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 49 minutes with some arriving flights receiving as much as 2 hours and 26 minutes delay. To see if you may be affected, select your departure airport and check "Delays by Destination".
Delays by Destination:

* Due to WEATHER, SNOW, departure traffic destined to La Guardia Airport, New York, NY (LGA) is currently experiencing delays averaging 3 hours and 7 minutes, with some flights receiving as much as 5 hours and 46 minutes delay.

General Departure Delays: Because a traffic management program is delaying some arriving flights, departing flight schedules may be affected. Check with your airline to determine if your flight is affected.
General Arrival Delays: Arrival traffic is experiencing airborne delays of 15 minutes or less.
This information was last updated: Dec 14, 2003 10:17:40 AM EST

Jim

 

[700UW]

CLT Metro, has changed the way they get ready for weather, and you all up North have snow which is 1000 times easier to deal with then ICE, CLT is nortorius for ice storms, the deicing in CLT is ready from the people I have talked too, but I will take snow over ice anyday.

 

[delldude]

live from 28 right:

 

[DCD]

As of wed. Am. my last day prior to a four day mini vacation all twelve of the de-icing booms and all forteen trucks were opperational. Since the last de-icing event several brainstorming sessions have been held with the contractors on how to improve the systems. Most of these have to do with changes to the computer programming witch should allow more a/c through the de-ice pad per hour and secondly help Usairways account more precisely how much fluid is being used per a/c. This second item should help usairways bill other airlines and recoup their expences from the City at the end of the year. As the installed system never worked as it should, this was a major problem that held up signing this years contract with the City. Several repairs have been made this past week to the communications systems and booms and trucks. Unfortunately though, until an actual event occurs, with the subsiquent heavy usage, you never know how these systems will hold up. One last thing to remember when judging the de-icing opperation of any airport. Often last year and even duiring last weeks event we were told to halt de-icing by the atc control tower until renotified because the take-off capacity at PHL is often only 36 a/c per hour during snow. You can't have too long of a line of a/c de-iced waiting for take-off and exceeding their hold-over time limits. I called to the ice-house at 9:30am sunday and was told that only one boom was inop and that over all things were going well. Regards.

 

[Art at ISP]

Well here's one I get to watch from the side lines for a change.

So far just delays from PHL from what I can see.

Good luck my friends.

My best to you all.

 

[N628AU]

Snow is always going to effect operations, no matter where you are. Last Thanksgiving weekend, I got stuck on a NW DC9 in DTW for two and half hours anfter an hour delay in the terminal waiting in line to be deiced.

 

[autofixer]

Way back when U was a growing airline and I actually got to upgrade to captain, I went to RIDC to see how it all worked...It was called "leadership development" or something. I got to talk to the ATC coordinator. He told me that we had 60 flights per hour scheduled into PHL. PHL could barely handle that volume on VMC days and the flow would be cut to 20 flights per hour when IMC were present at PHL. Hence, your problem. The moral of the story is, PHL is (for now) a "cash cow" and U management is willing to deal with weather and ATC flow delays to get the cash. I do it in my present business...stack the work up when it comes in, even if you can't handle the workflow. I simply deal with the customers when I have to, in order to get the cash. It is not an ideal situation, but it is part of doing business.