Overloaded hubs....

As you will see from my posts, my recent travel has been in and out of EWR and PHL. One of the disadvantages of both of these airports is that they are both effectively only 2 runway airports. And yes, I know that PHL has a small runway used by some commuter planes but most aircraft, including commuter jets use the 2 main runways. As both airports are also hubs (EWR = CO, PHL = US), this means that things can get very busy at peaks times. Any small weather problems can really mess things up. So on my recent trips to or from the NorthEast almost every flight has had more than usual delay.

Even when there are no weather problems, I have had bad experiences. About a week ago on a flight out of EWR there was an initial delay of 45 minutes, due to the later arrival of the incoming aircraft. Once we finally left the gate we waited over an hour before we could even take off. This on a day when there was absolutely no bad weather any where up or down the Eastern seaboard. In other words the delay was purely due to scheduling too many departures at the same time.

I wish there were a way that the airlines could be penalized for making these bad scheduling decisions. Oh, I forgot, they can....avoid those airports or airlines!