JetPilotMike

At what year?

hyde

How the hell am i supposed to know what year. Guess it depends on how many more beaten minorities, murdered pets, and failed attempts at being a LCC.

JustWatching

Jetbridges cause aircraft damage and unneeded delays when they break.... or so they say.

sailingfun

Most are not owned but rather leased. Either way you are ponying up for the cost. In many cases airlines have had to pay for the actual cost to install or renovate.

sqwkvfr

Many? As in rarely? As in never?

Thanks for education, professor, but that was kinda my point. Jetbridges are owned by the airport or it’s authority. Allegiant (or any ULCC or LCC for that matter) doesn’t “pony up” for jetbridges, particularly at an airport like PIE where only two of what, 14 or 15 gates have them and the cost would exceed $9 million just to buy the things...that doesn’t include the renovation required to install them or the fact that there just isn’t enough terminal building to install enough to cover every parking spot.

So, “ponying up for jetbridges” doesn’t happen anywhere, is cost prohibitive and physically impossible at PIE.

But thanks for the advice.

Baradium

You understand that new jetbridges can be installed and can actually be pretty long to get to further away spots, right?

And yes, ponying up for jetbridges does happen. American just paid to have additional jetbridges installed on their dime at ORD. Delta pays for them as well, some of the bridges themselves are physically owned by Delta although generally speaking the spot they are in is likely leased (it is possible for an airline to actually own a terminal itself and jetbridge outright). They are paying a good deal of money for new terminals and additional jet bridges at multiple major airports right now.

You can usually see a data plate or license somewhere on the jetbridge as you enter that details its status. A bridge that has an airline's name on the certificate or data plate is owned by that airline. Some are held by holding companies or other secondary means though so it can be hard to decipher those.


I know Delta and Alaska both have physical ownership of jet bridges and terminal facilities. I am confident American does the same and believe United is in the same situation.

Some airports that only have 1 or 2 jetbridges have them because a given airline paid for them and has exclusive rights (or as I said owns the physical bridge itself outright). Bridges are installed, they are not permanent features that cannot be removed. In fact, bridges have even been moved between different airports by owning airlines.

Your condescending attitude wouldn't be quite so bad if you weren't completely wrong about what you're asserting.

sqwkvfr

I appreciate your explanation. In my eagerness to response to a snarky comment, I was quick to jump.

Regardless, I really doubt that Allegiant is not gonna blow $9 Million+ on something that management sees as unnecessary. Such an investment would also give secondary airports the sense that Allegiant is more likely to stay when our management likes to leverage the possibility of moving to that metro area’s primary airport in order to get what they want.

ecam

Anyone else catch the irony of a long condescending post ending with a lecture about being condescending?

I'm really glad the almighty Big 4 and even some ULCCs "pony up" for jet bridges. They also have a completely different business models and cost structures than we do. We are also the nations's most profitable airline and all of them are behind us. So I guess we pick our battles more wisely.

As far as I can tell, we actually DO use jet bridges at most of the out stations, or at least the ones I fly to most. Only a handful of the smaller airports (especially out west) with no other air service don't provide them. It would be a dumb investment for a place with only 2-3 flights a week no? The only bases that don't have them are IWA PIE and PGD mostly because these places already have 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag and couldn't accommodate jetways without major renovations. When you're the only airline operating at an airport, that cost and operational burden falls on you. So allegiant picks their battles wisely. In my experience, the passengers like getting on a plane in some miserable frozen place, then strolling across a sunny warm ramp a few hours later at the destination. And flew over your hub doing it!

It still surprises me how many of you big shots at legacy airlines feel the need to throw rocks at us and belittle us as "not a real airline" even over something as asinine as jetways. We fly the same airplanes and put our pants on one leg at a time. So why do pilots like to think they are better than other pilots because off the company they work for.

dawgdriver

Yes, because we don't need lectures about being condescending.

Falcondrivr

Did you mean to say:
It still surprises me how many of you big shots at airlines feel the need to throw rocks at us and belittle us as "not a real pilot" even over something as asinine as number of seats. We fly high performance airplanes that require a high level of professionalism, precision, and skill. We put our pants on one leg at a time. So why do pilots like to think they are better than other pilots because off the size of the airplane they fly?