Airport Parking News

MANCHESTER – Manchester-Boston Regional Airport has it's share of delayed flights.

But it doesn't have the kinds of delays that left passengers stranded for as much as 11 hours this week on the runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York during Wednesday's snowstorm.

That's because the low volume of flights -- and airlines -- makes communication better and gates more likely to be open.

So says Kevin Dillon, the airport's director and a former official at Kennedy and mega-airports Logan International in Boston and LeGuardia International in New York.

Hundreds of passengers were stranded in JetBlue planes Wednesday at JFK because of icy weather and gate congestion, leading to furious customers and calls for a passenger bill of rights that would lay out operational guidelines for airlines.

"It was like -- what's the name of that prison in Vietnam that held McCain? The Hanoi Hilton?" Sean Corrinet of Salem, Mass., who spent nine hours on the runway, told the Associated Press.

Dillon said JFK, unlike Manchester, is already a congested airport. Add the snow, the confusion it causes and poor decisions by the airlines, and you end up with problems, he said.

With only 13 airlines and plenty of gate availability, Manchester avoids those issues, Dillon said.

If a flight cannot get clearance to take off, it will be returned to a gate and passengers allowed to deplane, he said.

"We're talking literally minutes," said Dillon. "We never have a case where a plane would sit for an hour. We just don't have that."

Flights do get cancelled or delayed in Manchester, Dillon said. But passengers end up sitting in the airport lobby, rebooking or heading home, instead of waiting on the runway, he said.

In June statistics, Manchester ranked among its New England peers in delayed flights.

Manchester reported 32.7 percent of its arriving flights were delayed, while 24.6 percent of depatures were, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

T.F. Green International Airport in Warwick, R.I. had 28.4 percent and 22.8 percent of its arriving and departing flights delayed.

At Logan, the statistics were 31.5 percent and 26.5 percent, while Portland International Tradeport in Maine reported 45.1 percent and 36.3 percent.

The JetBlue debacle has led to an apology by the company and calls in Congress for legislation to improve passenger conditions.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., announced Thursday she is planning to introduce a passengers' bill of rights that aims to ensure air travelers are not held unnecessarily on planes, or deprived of food, water and hygiene.

The legislation would give passengers the right to deplane if an aircraft has remained on the ground for more than three hours.

"I've been stuck on the tarmak many times in my travel back and forth to California. Sometimes with the weather and traffic, it's unavoidable," Boxer said in a written statement on her Web Site. "But to keep passengers -- which usually include infants and the elderly -- on the plane for 11 hours in the worst of conditions is absurd."

Dillon said airlines shouldn't be faulted for many of the causes of delays.

"You can't expect an airline to control the weather."

Source: Union Leader