with the big East Coast blizzard, how long does it take to before the Airlines resume ‘normal’ day-to-day business on the east coast.
I think 5 major airports were closed, (Boston, Philly, and the 3 in NYC) plus the other airports along the eastern seaboard.
obviously when the airports re-opened, planes were not where they were supposed to be. But is that a “wash” more or less? Planes could not fly out of the airports, but they also could not fly in so an airport should have its compliment of planes, just maybe not the right ones.
But if the airplanes at an airport are different models, they might also not be the ones for which the pilots at that airport are qualified to fly, or they might not have the right passenger capacity. Basically, it’s a mess. And I’m concerned because I’m booked on a flight for Sunday out of JFK.
The thing about a blizzard is that it’s more or less expected. When airlines have a bit of advance notice they are excellent are rerouting things and rebooking. It doesn’t seem that way but they are.
I worked with the airlines back in the mid 90s and we’d book passengers stranded at airports. It was always a great mystery to me why some, minor things could mess an airline up while a major storm might only put a minor delay, depending on when it occurred, time of day and how much notice you had.
I recall during one major snowstorm in Minneapolis, I had the whole crew of operators and over 3,000 rooms ready and we did less than 20 for that night. Everything took off. I don’t know why, but the pilots were able to land and take off in that mess of snow.
On the flip side, a big thunderstorm, lasting 15 minutes, at 5pm in Chicago can mess up the airline for a day or two.
Not so much, as the latter is used to such things, and the former is not.
In Washington DC, the city’s work force panics at the mere mention of snow. I once walked a mile down Wisconsin Ave in a 2" snowstorm (to the intersection with M St.), made 2 stops along the way, and beat the car that left the office at the same time I did.
In Florida, they’d be helpless until it melted.
In New England, 2" of snow would hardly slow traffic more than a couple mph, if at all.
It’s all about expectations, and capacity to handle the event.
KYW1060 (the main news radio station here in Philly) was reporting that the Philadelphia airport was pretty much running normally this (Tuesday) morning. Don’t know about the other airports.
Actually, one of the TV news stations was reporting that before expected airport closures the various airlines try to terminate as many of their flights as possible at airports other than the ones expected to close. Apparently this is under the assumption that an airplane stationed at an airport that remains open is more useful than an airplane stuck at an airport that is closed. So once an airport that has been closed re-opens most of the initial flights are incoming rather than outgoing.
“Surprise” airport closures are, of course, another matter entirely.