"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money." That notable line, attributed to the late Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois in reference to the Pentagon budget, also can be applied to the capital investment needs of airports, according to the folks who run them.
Airports Council International-North America, which represents the governing bodies of U.S. and Canadian airports, including the City of Philadelphia, estimates that its members must invest real money - $87.4 billion from 2007 through 2011 - to keep pace with the projected growth in passenger demand. Without putting money into new runways, terminals and gates, the busiest airports are going to get more congested and more flights will be delayed, the group said in a study. Travelers may understand the needs better after this summer. If thunderstorms delay many flights, 2007 could be worse than 2000, which the group said in a statement "had the dubious distinction of being the peak year for air-travel delays." Weather is the principal cause of flight delays, which averaged 51 minutes last year and are expected to be 53 minutes this year.
Philadelphia International Airport's capital-investment plans are a small slice of the $87.4 billion. The airport expects to spend between $600 million and $1 billion on projects from the start of fiscal 2008 on June 30 through fiscal 2011. Among improvements already under way are enlarging Terminals D and E with new ticketing lobbies, security checkpoints, retail shops and a food court, and lengthening the north-south runway to accommodate larger airplanes.
The vast majority of money spent on operations and capital improvements at Philadelphia and most other airports comes directly or indirectly from airline customers. The $4.50 charge for each departure that's part of the price of your ticket is one source of the airport's revenue. Another source is the federal tax on each airline ticket, which goes into a trust fund to pay for runways, taxiways and air-traffic control. But most of the money to keep the lights on and build new facilities comes from the airlines and other airport businesses in the form of rent, landing fees and other charges. So it's baked into price of a ticket or any other product or service you pay for at the airport.
US Airways changes .... US Airways has had a hard time keeping many of you happy this year, mostly because of its botched switch to a new computer reservations system in March that caused delays and cancellations. Recently, the airline has used its every public utterance - news releases, interviews with senior executives, employee newsletters - to ask for forgiveness and patience as it tries to improve things. Here are some examples of what the company says is under way:
For all travelers, US Airways is installing new software on its self-service airport kiosks, which didn't work well, or at all, after the computer switchover. Look for that work to be finished by the end of June. For its most frequent fliers, those with Preferred status in the Dividend Miles program, US Airways dropped a $25 fee that had been charged to change a reservation on the day of departure. Software was upgraded, too, so that three times a day a sweep is done of all passengers' records. The program looks for Preferred members who have reserved coach seats on flights that also have open first-class or business-class seats, and sends the members an e-mail after each sweep, telling them if they get to move to the front of the plane.
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Comments (3)
Interesting, but USAir never talks about bringing back the functionality of the behind-the-times computer system that they abandoned. Or catching up to Continental, Northwest, American, or United (don't think about Southwest), with their IS capabilities. The "new" USAir website is behind what Continental had five years ago. Online checkin is such a chore, with so many required steps, that I've effectively given up and resorted to standing in line (I'm platinum preferred). The kiosk software is now much harder to use and require far more time than the old system that AWA gave up on.
There is now way that USAir can fix their computer systems for at least a year, based on optimistic software development cycles. The AWA system was reputed to be the worst in the business, and well, my experience tells me that it is the worst. Fixing all that ails that monster will take a lot of time and money. And I don't hear Doug Parker mentioning that problem.
Posted by rich | May 28, 2007 9:55 AM
Posted on May 28, 2007 09:55
Just another US AIR story...came back to Philly from LA on the red-eye at 6 am Saturday...would you beleive a 45 minute wait for luggage? We were the only people waiting for bags. Nothing more fun than being cranky, sleep deprived and waiting for the one baggage handler to unload the plane. Ugh!
Posted by jimmy mack | May 29, 2007 9:10 AM
Posted on May 29, 2007 09:10
USAirways is the worst airline in the Philadelphia market, but because it has the most flights out of Philadelphia, there is not alot we can do to make them get any better, or responsive to the needs of the consumer.
The ONLY thing any business responds to is when poor service or poor treatment of customers, results in them being penalized by a fine or having to pay the customer for treating them so shabbily. I think each airline should have to pay the consumer when these things take place, and it should be a significant amount, so it hurts them when they do thid to the public that foots the bill for the airlines. How about $50-$100 per infraction per customer when they take place? If the airlines want us to pay for meals, and possibly pay for them to take our checked luggage, then we should charge them for making us late (Not weather related), and when they fail to provide prompt, quality customer service. I think fair is fair, then we'll see how the airlines treat their customers, and if they care at all about them, or is it just rhetoric as I suspect it is.
Posted by Gary Muzroll | May 29, 2007 10:08 AM
Posted on May 29, 2007 10:08