Mon, Aug 24, 2009
Airlines Say Weather, Construction Are To Blame
Two planes were delayed in New York
City on their way to Minneapolis, which resulted in hundreds of
people sitting on airliners for up to five and a half hours
Friday.
Television station KARE reports that a Sun Country flight was
the victim of that five and a half hour delay in New York.
Passenger John Nides told the station he paid $15 to check a bag on
the flight, but when the crew started baking cookies in the galley,
they were only distributed to the passengers in first class.
"So have you ever been in a kitchen when they're baking chocolate
chip cookies and you haven't eaten for four or five hours," he said
in an interview.
A Delta flight to Minneapolis was
also delayed in New York for 4 hours Friday. Those passengers were
finally allowed to deplane, and told to come back to the airport
for a flight Saturday morning. Saturday saw another delay. KARE
reports that once back on the plane, one of the passengers shot a
video of a Delta employee saying ""Again I do apologize. I'm hoping
the water trucks can be here in a couple minutes. We can not go
without any water in the lavatories."
Both airlines said runway construction in Minneapolis was the
primary reason for the delays. One of MSP's primary runways will be
closed through October for resurfacing of the middle 3.900 feet of
pavement. Minneapolis Metropolitan Airports Commission Spokesman
Pat Hogan told the station "because of the way the runways
are configured. You can't have planes coming in and landing on two
of the remaining three runways at the same time because they'd be
crossing paths."
Sun Country offered passengers a
refund for the flight. As a result of the delay, the airline
announced Sunday in a news release that it is implementing a new
policy modeled on legislation supported by Senator Amy Klobuchar
(D-MN) that would limit runway taxi time. The company has decided
to establish a maximum taxi time limit of four hours. After such
time, the Sun County Airlines flight will return to the gate area
to disembark its passengers.
Stan Gadek, CEO of Sun County Airlines said, “The flight
delay on Friday was unacceptable from the customers perspective as
well as the airline. By establishing a four hour deadline for a
return to gate decision we are eliminating long taxi times due to
ongoing delays for ATC, weather and airport congestion.”
Stan Gadek went onto say, “The Senate’s initiative
is on the mark and we thank Senator Klobuchar for her leadership
and support on this issue. We are pleased to be the first airline
to voluntarily implement a policy based upon key aspects of this
legislation.”
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