My colleague Dave Collogan, editor of The Weekly of Business Aviation, told me about how what appeared to be record numbers of passengers trying to fly out of McCarran International Airport on Feb. 19 and thought it was an interesting story. So did I, and the Feb. 26 issue of Aviation Daily has my story (subscribers only).
I had heard all kinds of things -- lines a mile long, security clogged and passengers fighting to get out. Well, this is why I get paid the big bucks -- to find the true story. It turns out that the whole day converged into -- and excuse the hackneyed term -- a "perfect storm" of events over the Presidents' Day weekend. Among the events happening over the weekend were the NBA All-Star game, celebrations for Chinese New Year and the clothing industry's Magic International annual convention, which brought in a record number of travelers.
So first up was a call to McCarran. The staff explained that it actually was passengers flying on Southwest that were having problems. So next was a call to Southwest.
The friendly PR department (I love them because they respect a deadline, always return phone calls and get you speaking to the people you really need) put me on the phone with Mike Hafner, the director of station operation. When Southwest -- the largest airline operating out of McCarran -- opened at 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 19, there were already customers waiting to check baggage and rebook flights, said Hafner.
"Transaction times were much longer than normal and once that time goes up, it's hard to catch up," he said. "We had a very large number of customers who had to check bags or needed more attention."
Press reports had lines almost a mile long. "I can't confirm they were that long, but we did have long lines," said Hafner. "They were extremely long, without a doubt."
Once the perfect storm hit, it was hard to recover in the mix of it all, said Hafner. "Once we had to start re-booking, it piled on, and things continued to roll in that direction," he explained. "We had so many folks coming through the doors, and we just could not catch up, even though we brought in more employees, who did a great job. As more people missed flights and had to be re-accommodated, that kept check-in times longer than normal."
It took the airline until early evening to get all passengers processed and on their way, said Hafner. "We opened an hour early on Feb. 20 and had our full staff on to process customers," he said.
The issue wasn't a lack of staffing, said Hafner. "We had the station staffed for a heavy traffic day, What happened was we were ready for the crowds, but not crowds that needed extra attention," he explained. "We have studied this and we will add more staff earlier in the day and bring in more employees when our booking levels hit a certain number."
So next up was the call to follow up with McCarran to see how they tried to help Southwest. McCarran is always prepared to gear up for these types of weekends, said Deputy director Rosemary Vassiliadis. "They are not a surprise for us. We get statistics from the convention and visitor's bureau for hotel bookings for shows conventions and events," she said. "We call them 100+ weekends. We know airlines will overbook and occupancy rate at hotels will be in the mid- to high 90s."
The airport makes sure that food and beverage outlets are stocked and concessions are fully staffed, said Vassiliadis. "We also ask airlines to open their ticket counters earlier than usual. We usually open between 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m., but for 100+ weekends, we ask them to open an hour earlier."
In cases like this, the airport has portable stanchions available to help airlines with line control, said Vassiliadis. "But this line grew very quickly. So many people came, and they weren't the typical savvy business traveler," she said. "Southwest's staff was very stressed and didn't have people to go out to the lines, so we sent our people to tell passengers who didn't have bags to check to get their boarding pass and move directly to security."
Hafner said It took Southwest until early evening to get all passengers processed and on their way. "We opened an hour early on Feb. 20 and had our full staff on to process customers," he said.
The issue wasn't a lack of staffing, Hafner emphasized. "We had the station staffed for a heavy traffic day, What happened was we were ready for the crowds, but not crowds that needed extra attention," he explained. "We have studied this and we will add more staff earlier in the day and bring in more employees when our booking levels hit a certain number."
Comments