"Airport waiting game"

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Airport waiting game
Flight delays on the rise at MBS thanks to hubs, weather, airlines
By Steve Neavling
The Bay City (MI) Times

 
Bob McMann has come to expect delays. 

His flights into MBS International Airport almost always are behind
schedule, he said. 

McMann, a Bay City retiree, blames Detroit Metropolitan Airport. 

"Coming out of Detroit is terrible," McMann said. "It seems like every year
we have a problem." 
     
Flight delays are on the rise locally and nationally. 

Nearly a fourth of all flights to MBS last year arrived 15 minutes or more
behind schedule, an increase for the fourth straight year, according to
statistics released this month by the U.S. Department of Transportation. 

That mirrors a national average that also marked a four-year high. 

MBS Manager Jeff Nagel said the airport has little influence over the
delays. What happens at larger airports - congestion, bad weather,
mechanical mishaps - can spark delays across the country, he said. 

"You're dealing with major hubs - Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis - where
they have a lot more operations, a lot more capacities, a lot more issues
with getting planes in and out on time," Nagel said. "Our main problem is
weather." 

MBS handled 424,758 passengers flying to and from Detroit, Chicago and
Minneapolis last year. 

The 885 late flights arrived an average 48 minutes behind schedule. 

Flights arriving from Chicago encountered the longest and most frequent
delays, with 30 percent of all flights landing at MBS 15 minutes or more
behind schedule. The average delay was 58 minutes. 

One in four flights from Minneapolis arrived late, while 18 percent from
Detroit were behind schedule. 

Nagel said there's not much MBS can do about late flights out of Chicago.
Fraught with congestion, frequent fog and bad weather, O'Hare International
Airport finished last among the nation's busiest airports in departure
performance last year. 

Rising delays are bad news for airports, and MBS is no exception. The
airport lost passengers every year since 1999, while its rival, Bishop
International Airport in Flint, continues to grow. 

MBS has one perk over Flint: Flights leaving MBS are more likely to be on
time. Nearly nine in 10 flights - 89 percent - depart MBS on schedule. At
Bishop, 83.3 percent - the national average - take off on time. 

Both airports ended the year with an identical arrival performance. 

Factors controlled by airlines, like maintenance, crew and fuel, caused 52
percent of the delays at MBS. About a third stemmed from delays at airports
holding up other airports. The National Aviation System delayed 14 percent
of flights. Weather accounted for 3 percent. 

Nagel said MBS does all it can to guard against delays. That usually means
clearing the runway of ice, snow and debris, he said. 

"We can't control visibility issues; we can't control national system
delays; we certainly can't control operations at the three hubs," he said.
"What we can do is strive to keep delays that are caused locally to a
minimum." 

No delays occurred because of the foot of snow that fell on the airport
Sunday, Nagel said.


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