Charlotte, N.C., Airport Passengers Suffer Long Waits from Snowstorm

Posted on Mon, Mar. 01, 2004 
 
Charlotte, N.C., Airport Passengers Suffer Long Waits
from Snowstorm
Miami Herald, FL


Feb. 28 - Long lines could await passengers at
Charlotte/Douglas International Airport this morning,
but they aren't likely to require the waits of two
hours or more that exhausted travelers Friday morning.

This week's snowstorm forced hundreds to wait in line
at the US Airways ticket counter Friday, jammed up by
flight cancellations and limited airline staffing
because snowbound employees couldn't get to work.

This morning, lines could be filled with passengers
who couldn't reach the airport Friday, said a US
Airways spokesman. Most flights today are expected to
operate normally, however, and airport staffing is
expected to be largely restored.

On Friday morning, ticket counter staffing levels were
about a third of normal, while lines were filled with
passengers securing boarding passes or waiting to
rebook. Many had been stranded Thursday night, as
cancellations filled area hotels and a few hundred
airport cots.

"I've never seen a line this long in my life," Jon
Rogers, a textile company capacity planner flying from
Raleigh to Fayetteville, Ark, said Friday. "I feel
like I'm in an amusement park line -- you wait and
wait and wait."

College student Rose Letendre said her flight home to
Charleston from Providence, R.I. -- with a change of
planes in Charlotte -- was interrupted by an
unpleasant night spent trying to sleep in the airport.

"My cot kept collapsing, people were snoring, my cell
phone is dead and I don't have a charger," she said,
adding glumly: "This is my spring break."

Letendre flew out Friday afternoon, as airport
conditions gradually cleared during the day, although
de-icing resumed briefly midafternoon.

The airline has its busiest hub in Charlotte,
operating 469 daily departures and employing 5,782.

US Airways canceled about 70 Charlotte departures on
Friday, after canceling about three dozen Thursday
night. Because the heavy, wet snow caused de-icing
delays, airline workers de-iced planes until 4 a.m.
Friday, when the last scheduled Thursday flight took
off.

The storm represented a low to moderate additional
expense for financially troubled US Airways. In
storms, airplanes sit on the runway longer and may
taxi farther, crews may be paid for canceled flights,
delayed baggage must be delivered to passengers and
planes must be de-iced.

Delays or cancellations in a hub, such as Charlotte,
have a ripple effect throughout an airline's system.
US Airways operates 3,317 daily departures.

In the third quarter of 2003, US Airways said severe
summer storms cost it $20 million during the quarter.
The airline also budgets for winter storms, said
spokesman David Castelveter, who declined to estimate
the added costs from this week's weather.

Terri Pope, US Airways station director, said the
airline had anticipated six to 10 inches of snow and
arranged to have some employees spend Thursday night
at airport-area hotels. But unanticipated heavier snow
meant that only about 30 percent of the airport agents
and ramp workers made it to work early Friday.

Pope said some ticket agents volunteered to stay in
the airport to assist stranded passengers, rather than
stay in hotel rooms purchased for them. Some agents,
ramp workers and others worked through the night and
were still working Friday afternoon.

"I'm having to force them to go home,' " Pope said
Friday. "I say 'You're exhausted, go home,' and they
say, 'No, ma'am, we need to stay; we don't have enough
people.' " Ticket Changes US Airways and some other
airlines will waive change fees for storm-affected
passengers.

Trips must involve Asheville, Charlotte, Fayetteville,
Greensboro, Raleigh/Durham or Greenville/Spartanburg.

Most passengers may reschedule trips to originate up
to seven days later.

 

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