Winging It

We're off to the races! A reader has posted a comment, asking: When will there be signs on I-95 to the airport's cell-phone lot?

The answer is not for awhile, if ever. I-95 is controlled by PennDOT, which doesn't want to see a lot of signage cluttering up its interstate exit signs. The lot is on Bartram Avenue, also now designated as State Route 291. The portion of Bartram where the lot is situated is parallel to I-95 and north of the intererstate. The way to find it is to follow a series of small signs along the airport's internal roads that say "Cell Phone Lot, Follow Park and Ride."

The signs are not always easy to read or follow. The people who run the airport have promised to revisit the issue of how good -- or bad -- the signs are, and we will follow up with them for a future story, and for posting in this space.

Starting Jan. 23, all U.S. citiizens and citizens of Bermuda, Canada and Mexico arriving in the United States from any part of the Western Hemisphere by air must have a valid passport. Airlines and government officials reported few problems with the new rules. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents indicated they were showing leniency toward travelers arriving without passports.

Click here to read the AP story.

US Airways CEO Doug Parker won't commit to increasing his airline's bid for Delta Air Lines, the AP reports this morning.

Read the full story here.

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The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee is conducting a hearing today in Washington to look into airline industry consolidation, a topic that could have a profound effect on travelers who use Philadelphia International Aiurport. Among the issues: How would service and fares at PHL be affected were US Airways to acquire Delta, and the surviving entity "rationalizes" its route structture in a way that cuts the number of flights or airplane seats available ?

Nerws releases and the text of US Airways CEO Doug Parker's testimony at the hearing can be found at the airline's Website, usairways.com. Another view, from Delta CEO Gerald Grinstein, can be found on delta.com, (search for Newsroom on the Delta site).

One group of passengers who are mad as hell at the airline industry is using the hearing to issue a call for a passengers' Bill of Rights. These folks are angry because on Dec. 29,. they were among hundreds of American Airlines passengers stranded aboard planes that sat on the ground for as long as nine hours at the Austin (Tex.) Bergstrom International Airport. The travelers, whose flights were diverted to Austin by bad weather elsewhere, had no water, food or sanitary restroom facilities during their ordeal. And they're not happy with the airline's response to their treatment, offering little in the way of compensation, the group says.

The movement that this group of travelers could start has been brewing for awhile, with complaints about airline service growing. We will keep up with it and report further developments as they happen.

We posted a comment today about homeless people at PHL, the second one on the topic since we started last week. The questions raised need a response.

First, to clarify, no one needs a ticket or to show identification to be in the portion of airport before security checkpoints. That includes throughout the parking garages, ticketing areas, baggage claim areas, the SEPTA rail platform, and the corridors, roads and sidewalks in between. That's where some homeless people can be found, especially in the winter. They are allowed to be there because the airport is a public facilitiy, owned by the City of Philadelphia. Starting Jan. 8, the airport started an outreach program, with the help of other city agencies and the police, to try to help some of these people move to city-funded shelters; in the last two weeks, two homeless people have been moved to shelters, airport officials say. During very cold weather, like today. the city declares a "Code Blue," and by law, cannot remove people from public facilities.

Perhaps this question should be directed to the mayor, City Council, the governor, the state legislature, Congress or the President, or all of them ?

Philadelphia Police officers who patrol PHL have a new way to catch up to people who need catching up to: Segway "personal transporters." Officers Darryl Jones and Gene Jones (no relation) were riding two of the four Segways the police have today past a bank of flight monitors. Photo by Tom Gralish of The Inquirer.

Look on the bright side: Flight delays at PHL aren't getting worse, and in one way, they're getting better.

Philadelphia improved its ranking for on-time airline departures in 2006, moving from last place to No. 27 out of 31 large airports, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics reporrted today. . The agency said 72.2 percent of flights left Philadelphia on time last year, compared with 71.9 percent in 2005. In on-time arrivals, the airport was in 27th place in both years; 70.4 percent of flights arrived on time last year, compared with 71.8 percent in 2005.

Nationwide, airline delays last year rose to their highest level since 2000, the federal data shows. About 22.6 percent of flights arrived at least 15 minutes late, the most since record delays of 23.9 percent in 2000.

Frequent air travelers know this, so here's some information for the less-than-frequent. AirTran Airways became the first airline we've seen to issue a news release this afternoon about the big winter storm that's moving across the Midwest and will hit the East Coast tomorrow. As carriers always do during big weather events, AirTran will relax its rules on penalizing passengers who need to change their flights. If you're flying this week, check the Website of your airline to see what you need to do to adjust. You will find links to airlines serving PHL in the column to the right.

The snow is flying in the Philadelphia area this morning, but most flights are still operating on schedule, according to PHL's handy Website, which has real-time arrival and departure information. You can check on your flight here.

That "wintry mix" is getting heavier. Most flights to and from PHL are operating late and about 25 percent had been canceled as of mid-afternoon. Keep checking with your airline or the airport's Web site if you're flying.

No suprise: PHL is not operating normally, but it is open and crews have been working to keep runways clear. Here is what you need to know, from our story posted on philly.com.

Air travel: Philadelphia International "Through about 11 o'clock about 50 percent of arrival and departures are canceled," says Mark Pesce, spokesman for Philadelphia International Airport. "We also have numerous delays." For flight information, go to http://www.phl.org or call 1-800-745-4283 (1-800-PHL-GATE). "The airport is operational," he said. "We've had crews working since yesterday keeping our airfield open, our roadway system, our sidewalks, everything that we do here." About 300 city employees help with airport snow removal, using 50 large pieces of equipment and assorted smaller ones to the airport's 25 million square feet of concrete, he said. "The airfield alone is 16 million square feet." (During better weather, those employees do other kind of maintenance.)

The number of cancellations is down compared with yesterday, but the weaher continues to affect PHL operations. Many flights are running a half hour to two hours behind schedule.
You can check on your flight here.

Local broadcast coverage of the aftermath of last week's snow and ice would lead one to believe that there's a repeat going on of US Airways' infamous baggage-service meltdown during the 2004 Christmas holidays. That's not true. Then, as now, this is an easy story for TV stations to do because it's a visual about the airport they can capture on tape without going through security, or in fact doing much work at all. Here's the way we look at the "story."

When it snows, especially when mixed with ice, airports and airlines slow down. If they didn't, safety could easily be compromised. US Airways ramp workers who load bags and direct planes in and out know this: There were several broken bones and cuts requiiring stiches for workers who slipped and fell last week. Of course, flights are going to be delayed and many cancelled. Bags are going to miss connections. Some will take days to find their owners. The bag-tracing phone lines at US Airways and other airlines will be jammed, and you may be cut off. In the end, only a tiny handful of bags will be truly lost. On average more than 99 percent of all checked bags are delivered when they're supposed to be, at the end of a flight.

But is the number of bags that piled up over the weekend at PHL unusual for US Airways or any airline? The answer is no. About 700 bags were in the US Airways bag-claim area yesterday. By this morning, when the story was still being broadcast, there were betrween 300 and 400 bags still waiting to be reunited with their owners. US Airways carries about 60 percent of the 31-million-plus passengers who use the airport annually. If each passenger checks one bag, which is average, US Airways handles close to 20 million bags a year -- just at PHL.

The five-day breakdown in operations at JetBlue Airways touched only a limited number of fliers in the Philadelphia region because the airline doesn't serve PHL. But PHLcustomers have voiced a lot of complaints about service here during last week's storm, mostly about US Airways but also about Delta. Several flights from PHL took off four to six hours late, with most of the delay spent idling on the ground at the airport -- surely one of the most aggravating aspects of air travel. There are too many stories to count about bags going astray, although, as we said yesterday, this was not a repeat of the Christmas 2004 meltdown..

The airlines' performance has renewed calls for Congress to adopt a passenger bill of rights that would punish airlines for bad service. JetBlue itself has fueled the effort by offering a version of its own, to try to compensate some of its aggreived customers.

Please tell me what you think about this issue, in comments here or by e-mailing me at tbelden@phillynews.com.. Before you do, however, do me this favor: Read why Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, thinks legislation is a bad idea. To see his view, read his Feb. 2 news release on the issue at his Website here...

PHL has experienced flight delays and a few cancellations today, mostly because of the big winter storm that's beaten up the Midwest and Northeast the last few days. As always, check with your airline or the airport's phl.org Website if you're planning a trip.

Elsewhere, JetBlue canceled more flights at its hub at JFK in New York. For the most recent story posted on philly.com click here

We have added a handy feature to philly.com that provides links to all of the key traffic and weather Websites in the Philadelphia region.Watch the traffic move -- or not -- or I-95, get the latest updates on highway conditions, check on mass transit or on the status of a flight to or from PHL. A link directly from this page can be found near the bottom of the right-hand column, under useful sites. Take a look here

A JetBlue Airways flight enroute from Pittsburgh to New York's Kennedy Airport made an unscheduled landing this morning at Philadelphia International Airport. The diversion was not an emergency. The 54 passengers were given a choice of getting off and finding their own way to the New York area, or riding a bus to JFK that JetBlue chartered.

JetBlue, airport and FAA officials explained what happened. The captain of the jet dverted after a cockpit instrument indicated a problem with de-icing devices, which are mounted on the leading edge (the front part) of the wings. The devices prevent ice from building up on the wings as the plane passes through cold, wet air. The air near Kennedy had the potential for an ice buildup, so the captain decided to do the prudent thing and go to PHL, the nearest major airport where conditions were better. The FAA doesn't keep track of diversions but they're not uncommon, and they usually are because of weather conditions at the scheduled destination..In fact, three United Airline flights headed to Washington Dulles were diverted to other airports today because of the weather, an FAA spokesman said.

For anyone living in a cave the last two weeks,. JetBlue was criticized after bad weather stranded passengers in planes at JFK, its main hub, for up to 10 1/2 hours after the Valentine's Day storm. The airline has been playing catchup, promising a better performance in the future.

The snow is blowing sideways around Philadelphia this morning, with one to three inches forecasted by nightfall. PHL is open but delays are running anywhere from a few minutes to two or three hours, according to the airports phl.org Website. We will update later today. In the meantime, as you languish in a lounge or airport club, please let us know how your trip is going.

PHL has the experienced the usual delays a snow day brings. The airport has closed one runway at a time to clear snow, which always slows operations, but the runways have never been completely shut down. US Airways canceled nine mainline, large-jet flights, 6 percent of its schedule, and scrubbed 63 Express flights, about 22 percent of the total. Other carriers also have canceled flights. Most flights are arriving or departing from a few minutes to several hours late.

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But that doesn't mean it was a cheery morning for quite a few travelers. More than half of departures and arrivals were 15 or more minutes late before noon today, according to the flightstats.com Website. Schedules have gotten much better since noon, with just 15 percent of departures and 10 percent of arrivals running late, flightstats says. We're getting fewer reports of long lines at US Airways today than we did the last four days. Please keep us informed as you travel..You can find flightstats.com here

As you may have read in The Inquirer or other newspapers, some Delaware County residents and many of its political leaders are opposed to a plan the FAA is studying that's designed to reduce flgiht delays in and out of PHL. The FAA is expected later this spring to choose one of four alternatives for rerouting air traffic, or leaving flight paths as they are now. Read the most recent Inquirer story on the issue,

We're reporting today from US Airways annual media day at its Tempe, AZ, headquatrters, and one of the first words out of CEO Doug Parker's mouth were: "We're not running as good an airline as we'd like or thought we would be. The key to that is fixing Philadelphia." The day promises more briefings on just what the airline's senior executives are going to do to improve its PHL operations. Parker and president Scott Kirby also were out front on the messy switchover to an integrated US Airways-America West reservations system that caused so many long lines and delayed flights last week.

A cold rain, but no snow, is falling in the Philadelphia area this morning, with a mix of snow and rain forecast for tonight. Just before 9 a.m., about 65 percent of scheduled departures and arrivals so far today were on time, according to flightstats.com. Look for more delays and cancellations to the upper Midwest and the Northeast as the winter storm moves up the coast. Several airlines are making their usual offers allowing changes to tickets without penalty to those affected by the weather.

Speaking of forecasts, the FAA has issued a long-range estimate for growth in air traffic. No surprise, the increase is going to be large. Read more here

Conditions are getting worse at PHL, with the rain mixing with sleet and ice pellets. US Airways has canceled flights and delays are running as long as three or four hours. United and Southwest have cancelled most or all of their schedules for the day, an airport spokeswoman says. Elswhere, JetBlue Airways, still smarting from its big breakdown in service last month, preemptively cancelled most of its flights from JFK and Newark airports. Keep checking with your airline if you're flying. The phl.org Website's real-time flight arrival and departure service is working only intermittently.

It's been another bad day at PHL for airlines and their passengers trying to recover from the surprisingly nasty winter storm. This morning's Inquirer news story about what happened yesterday can still be found on philly.com. We said in the story there were no "immediate" reports of long strandings on airplanes. Now there are. See the comment from Kevin sent last night but just posted. We will continue reporting on how the airlines and the airport handled the situation.

After last weekend's problems with weather and US Airways computer problems at PHL, you may not want to take another flight for awhile. But why not dream a little, and think about what it would be like to ride on a 600-passenger jet. Check out today's print and online story about the first U.S. flight of the Airbus 380 jet here

Many of you have posted comments here, sent us e-mail or called regarding the last four days at PHL and US Airways performance. At about 2 p.m. today, there were still about 1,000 misplaced bags (we counted) in US Airways B-C bag-claim area. There are scattered reports of piles of bags in other airports also, waiting to be reunited with their owners. We spoke yesterday to a local leader of the customer-service agents' union, for a print and online story. Read what she says the problem is. here.

PHL gest a bad rap whenever the weather disrupts normal operations, and many of you believe it deserves it. No doubt, the grounding of all flights during last Friday's sleet caused as much pain and suffering to travelers as any storm has recently. The local media was out in force to report on how passengers were affected. Sleeping in an airport is no fun -- there's no way to minimize how grim that can be.

But most of what happened to travelers was beyond the airport's control. The airlines were required by the FAA to stop flying while ice was falling -- they had no choice about cancellatioins.The response of US Airways was another matter that has been written and talked about and some of you have vented about it (Please, keep it up.) .The airline has a new computer system that employees say doesn't work properly and that only made the dismal experience of waiting to rebook even worse. But the airport staff didn't take the weekend off. Many employees made a serious effort to do what they could to help. If you want to know more about how the airport's managers view the way they responded, read a news release the airport issued this afternoon here

Read today's update on plans to redesign the airspace in the Northeast to try to reduce flight delays here.

In the early 1990s, the U.S. Department of Transportation identified a phenomenon it called "the Southwest effect," to show what happens when the airline starts service in a new city: fares drop and traffic goes up. Today, there's no better example of the effect than traffic at Philadelphia International. Read details in our report on PHL traffic in 2006 here

In the early 1990s, a new PHL director, Mary Rose Loney, was dismayed that there was nothing distinctive about the restaurants, bars and retail outlets at the airport, nothing that said 'Philly" when you got off an airplane that helped you know where you were. The offerings have been upgraded significantly since then, making them comparable to some of the best airport retail outlets in the country, and there are some familiar local names in several locations. Today the airport and Marketplace/Redwood, the airport retail developer, announced that Chickie & Pete's, a popular Philadelphia-based chain of crabhouses, will open in three locations in the airport by the end of this year. Look for them in Terminals A-West, C and E.

Overheard today walking down Market Street in Center City, one young woman to her friend: "I wish it would get warm." Don't we all! The heavy, chilly rain across the region has hurt airline schedules all day at PHL, although operations began improving after 3 p.m., according to flightstats.com. The FAA had the airport under a ground delay, meaning the majority of arrivals and departures were running from a few mnutes to three or four hours late. The forecast for tomorrow calls for sun and wind, with a return to more chilly weather -- and a chance for the proverbial "wintry mix" of rain and snow Sunday and Monday. Stay warm.

Mary Peters, the U.S. secretary of transporation, was in China this week to talk about loosening the limits on air service to one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Here's a link to the AP story from Beijing. The story doesn't include the name of US Airways, which as you may have read here, intends to apply for the right to fly nonstop between Philadelphia and Shanghai, starting next year. Today's development means the odds of US Airways getting a China route may have grown a little. But don't make plans just yet. American, Continental and Delta also would love to go nonstop from one of their hubs to China.

You may want to do what a Road Warrior who called me at home today (he's my brother-in-law so it was OK) did with his plans to spend a week doing business in South Jersey. His flight from DFW was canceled, and he put off the whole trip until next week. The heavy rain means delays at PHL are averaging an hour and a half, about 50 to 60 percent of flights are on time, and there are a handful of cancelations by a variety of airlines. Southwest is keeping more of its schedule intact than any other PHL major carrier. Check the phl.org Website if you're flying. Take care out there.

Another Congressional hearing today, this time in the House, on the passenger bill of rights legislation. As you will recall, the proposed regulations stemmed from the stranding of passengers on major airlines' planes during snowstorms over the winter. Opinions vary whether using federal law is the best way to make carriers behave better. Today it was the turn of the American Society of Travel Agents to weigh in, and they are in favor. Read the testimony it presented to a House committee here

ACY, Atlantic City International Airport, located about 50 miles southeast of Center City, is one of several in the Philadelphia area that weary travelers, and the occasional politician, like to talk about as an alternative to PHL. Instead of trying to reconfigure the airspace around Philadelphia and New York as a way to reduce congestion and flight delays, as the FAA hopes to do, why don't airlines just use ACY more? That could, in fact, happen, according to a longtime industry consultant, Michael Boyd, who addressed an Atlantic County Transportation Forum at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey last week. But, Boyd said, it will require major carriers providing more connecting flights to ACY from their hubs. Today, only Delta does that, with three--a-day regional jets to and from Atlanta. Leisure-oriented Spirit Airlines has the only other scheduled service now, to Florida, Las Vegas and the Caribbean, and to its Detroit hub in the summer. Almost a million passengers used ACY last year, compared with almost 32 million at PHL. Less than a third of the travelers using ACY are there just to go to Atlantic City, out of a total of 34 million visitors a year. Here is a link to the ACY Website.

US Airways reported a $66 million first-quarter profit this morning. Of more interest to passengers: The airline announced that it would hire more airport employees and take other steps to improve the US Airways "experience." News releases on the earnings and the customer-service initiative can be found at US Airways.com. Go to "About Us" and then "press room." Click here for our story from Friday's paper.

With thunderstorms moving through the region, some PHL operations are running behind schedule but most flights are on time. Expect the weather to disrupt service at numerous airports in the Northeast and Midwest today.

Two airlines that serve PHL -- and both happen to base their operationis in Atlanta -- are in the news

AirTran Airways is expanding in many places, adding flighs to its Atlanta hub and elsewhere, and announced this morning that it set a one-day record for the number of newly hired employees who showd up for their first day of orientation -- 152. Some of the new hires will be stationed at PHL. AirTran CEO Joe Leonard promised last June that the little airline that's not so little anymore would hire 2,500 people over the next five years,.The company said it's on pace to do that, having hired.800 since last July 1, and now has a total of 8,537 employees.

The second airline, Delta, made its formal exit from Chapter 11 today. The airline has fewer employees, most of whom took pay cuts; the pilots had their pensions reduced; the previous version of Delta common stock was canceled; and many creditors received 62 to 78 cents on the dollar, better than many reorganizations, for what they were owed. On the other hand, the airline is still flying, employees will get some cash and equity, and it revealed a new logo today. Look at the Delta Website later tonight or tomorrow to see how it updated what it calls its "Widget," the delta-shaped symbol that appears next to the name.