Fiscal 2023 DIF Account

Airport Comment

 So Jake and Unknown don't realize that data changes and the data for the mid day turn does change and this morning it did change. Based off of Jetblue's app when booking a flight, this is the data that's updated for the flights: 

Morning flight to JFK has a 60.714% on time arrival with 14.286% being delayed 30 minutes. Mid day turn to JFK for Jetblue has an on time arrival of 50% and is delayed 30+ minutes 33.33% of the time. 

When going from JFK to ORH, the mid day flight has a 58.33% on time arrival with 25% of the time being delayed 30+ minutes. The evening flight has a 42.857% arrival time with 28.571% of the time being delayed 30+ minutes. 

The Fort Lauderdale flight has a 75% on time arrival rate with 10.714% of the time being delayed 30+ minutes. The flight back to ORH has an on time percentage of 56.25% with 31.25% of the time being delayed 30+ minutes. 

For comparison, the delta flight is on time 77% of the time with 23% being delayed 30+ minutes. The american flight does not have any public data available. 

Now I am not one to bash the airport. I was the same person who made the original comment on this post, and I do travel a lot for work and try to use Worcester when I can and visit the airport often and I wish there were more flights because Worcester can be a great option for a business/leisure traveler like me. The issue and reason why I fly out of Boston more than Worcester is 99% of the time, the people flying to New York are connecting to another flight. 

Worcester Airport is known for it's high winds and sometimes poor weather (fog is another issue) which can delay flights or cancel them. If people are going to try and use Worcester Airport for connections, and the flights keep getting delayed or cancelled, then they're going to go to Boston or somewhere else having more confidence they can make their connecting flight. 

Another issue it can possibly be, the crews at the airport. On a typical day with the current schedule, all three mid day flights arrive and depart Worcester 30 minutes apart. Ever since American changed their flight schedule on Tuesday to where it is now, they have not been able to depart on time and today's flight got cancelled.

 I would say weather might've factored in, but Delta left on time today and Jetblue was delayed an hour (weather in New York was not the best). But there hasn't been a clear answer as to why Tuesday and Wednesday it couldn't leave on time and was delayed. Luckily the schedules change soon but it's still been not the best. 

It can also factor whether another airline wants to fly out of Worcester. I would love for Worcester to have the same success as Bradley does north of Hartford but if an airline like Spirit or Southwest for example is looking and seeing that flights are being delayed and cancelled with no clear reason, they're going to question if it's really a good idea considering many flights from the area have left later than usual after arriving on time. 

I still think too if Worcester wants to go to leisure destinations like Orlando, Fort Myers, Myrtle Beach, etc. They should target Delta for it because Delta has a large variety of aircraft they could use from the A220-100 (same size as Jetblue's E190) to the Boeing 717 or 737. 

Plus, Delta has been matching Jetblue on fares to Worcester and they've been my go too for coming back home because unlike Jetblue, I don't have to pay $25-$55 extra to bring a carry on bag with me on the plane. 

I would never like to see ORH go downhill because it's a great airport, but the operations are not the best. There are definitely a lot of things you can say need improvements at the airport with marketing being the top thing, but if they want to bring new airlines in, they have to stop having flights arriving on time to ORH leave ORH delayed because of something going on at the airport.

 


 

Comments

Jake said…
I certainly do know data changes, not only by flight, but day of week. The American flight has no data because of the new time and flight number. Crews are not an issue because flights are leaving close to each other. The airlines have either their own personnel, or a dedicated contractor. You'll have more of a chance getting delayed out of Boston for that reason. Gates and crews can only work one flight at a time and if the flight takes a delay, the crew and gate are tied up delaying the next flight. Delta left on time because the were going to LGA. AA goes to JFK. You can blame the FAA for putting in ground stop and ground delay programs so they dont have planes stacked up overhead at certain airports. So, if you were booked to JFK out of PVD, BOS, MHT, BDL, at the same ime on Tuesdsay or Wednesday, you would have been sitting there just like ORH. See for yourself. If ORH had a flight to EWR at noon today, it'd be sitting at the gate for 49 minutes due to an FAA imposed ground delay. See nasstatus.faa.gov for all the delay programs that are going on. I really do wish that people would not assume its a Worcester problem, because you're right, it is a great airport, but innacurate comments will give travelers pause.
Anonymous said…
There’s no inaccurate comments. It’s been known that Worcester has a history of delays and American never even took off from worcester a couple days ago and JetBlue left a couple hours late. This week will be a very telling week for operations at ORH. It made national headlines when the plane from JFK had people sitting there for an hour because no one was there to bring the gate to it. They’ll have to be good or else there will be real problems and people’s reputation of the airport are not going to be good. 5 out of the next 8 days the FLL is sold out and the other ones are at 90% capacity. From the 22nd to the 27th as well as the 29th, 30th, and May 1st, the return flight to ORH is sold out. April 15th, 16th, and 19th to 23rd both JetBlue flights to JFK are sold out (the 17th mid day turn is sold out). The delta flight to LaGuardia is at really good numbers for the next two weeks as well. Would not surprise me to see the A220, A320, or A321 make an appearance at least once these next 2 weeks at Worcester because of how packed the flights will be. It happened in March during spring break where the A321 with mint, made an appearance because of how packed it was (that’s a 159 seat aircraft). Hopefully Rectrix (which I believe is the one who is in charge of operations for those flights) gets it together finally because if they can do good the next 2 weeks, then Worcester’s positive reputation can go a long way with getting more flights to the airport