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DeckardTrinity

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DeckardTrinity
... go by air.

This familiar phrase in the general aviation community might be getting more and more applicable to commercial aviation.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/business/storms-delta-cancellations/index.html

After a one day series of thunderstorms, Delta airlines has still not managed to catch up under the weight of operational delays, record passenger volume, and a system that is, in my opinion, quite literally at maximum capacity. This to me speaks to a larger problem with the pace of migration and dispersal of families across this vast country of ours, one that many have known for decades is not sustainable. The idea that you could see your loved ones, on your schedule, at a cheap price point, and with just a short flight, is quickly vanishing. Will this drive people to reduce that distance, or will we, as seems to always be the case, just get used to another new (lower quality of life) normal?
 
Roads and interstates are pushing maximum capacity. The population is growing and the travel space is not. It will be the new norm in the foreseeable future, as the logistics are just not moving fast enough.
 
I do the math regularly; 350 mile trip one way, and I'm partners in a 172. Drive myself or fly myself? Flying myself is the fastest way, while driving or airlines are about the same. Weekends, it's a no brainer, take the 172. I-95 is a clogged artery then. I have to respect the weather, though, and pushing back north, late on a Sunday, with embedded CBs, in a 172, is not on my to-do list.

Anyway, I drive about 2/3 of the time, fly myself almost all the rest - rare, rare that I take the airline option. I will probably escape the high-tax, left wing, pay everyone else's bills, DC Metro area, and migrate soon, to be closer to family.
 
DeckardTrinity said:
... go by air.

This familiar phrase in the general aviation community might be getting more and more applicable to commercial aviation.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/business/storms-delta-cancellations/index.html

After a one day series of thunderstorms, Delta airlines has still not managed to catch up under the weight of operational delays, record passenger volume, and a system that is, in my opinion, quite literally at maximum capacity. This to me speaks to a larger problem with the pace of migration and dispersal of families across this vast country of ours, one that many have known for decades is not sustainable. The idea that you could see your loved ones, on your schedule, at a cheap price point, and with just a short flight, is quickly vanishing. Will this drive people to reduce that distance, or will we, as seems to always be the case, just get used to another new (lower quality of life) normal?
Click to expand...

We just moved 1900 miles to go home and be near family. Traveling took too long and was getting pricey.
 
I fly because I don't have to pay anything. If it's a short flight like <100 miles I may drive.
 
Here's to hoping that the Hyperloop pays off. No weather delays on that one.
 
DeckardTrinity said:
... go by air.

This familiar phrase in the general aviation community might be getting more and more applicable to commercial aviation.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/business/storms-delta-cancellations/index.html

After a one day series of thunderstorms, Delta airlines has still not managed to catch up under the weight of operational delays, record passenger volume, and a system that is, in my opinion, quite literally at maximum capacity. This to me speaks to a larger problem with the pace of migration and dispersal of families across this vast country of ours, one that many have known for decades is not sustainable. The idea that you could see your loved ones, on your schedule, at a cheap price point, and with just a short flight, is quickly vanishing. Will this drive people to reduce that distance, or will we, as seems to always be the case, just get used to another new (lower quality of life) normal?
Click to expand...

Nah, this is just about Delta. I'm not sure what went wrong, if they had some sort of a system fail or if they've just spread their resources too thin, but to still have people stranded five days after a series of thunderstorms rolled through KATL indicates a problem on their end. Note that the rest of the airlines had delays on Wednesday, whereas Delta had mass cancellations for the day of and three days after the event, and are still cancelling an abnormal number of flights.
 
FormerHangie said:
Nah, this is just about Delta. I'm not sure what went wrong, if they had some sort of a system fail or if they've just spread their resources too thin, but to still have people stranded five days after a series of thunderstorms rolled through KATL indicates a problem on their end. Note that the rest of the airlines had delays on Wednesday, whereas Delta had mass cancellations for the day of and three days after the event, and are still cancelling an abnormal number of flights.
Click to expand...
Interesting read for 'ya...

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/delta/101048-atl-irop.html
 
Delta was hit unusually hard this time.

ATL had a ATC ground stop for five hours. In 27 years as an airline pilot I've never seen a ground stop last that long short of a hurricane or major winter storm.

Over 60% of Delta's airplanes transit ATL each day. That is a huge amount of their fleet and crews being affected.

I've heard third hand that the large number of schedule changes caused problems with their crew scheduling software but haven't seen that confirmed. It's certainly possible. Some might remember the meltdown at Comair just before Christmas 2004 when a large ice storm went through their CVG hub and resulted in more transactions in their crew scheduling system than the software was capable of tracking. Ironically, Comair, at the time, was already in the process of replacing that software with a system with more capacity but it wasn't online yet.

Whatever the causes, they haven't done a very good job recovering this time.
 
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