I think PHL/DCA/LGA's problem isn't just laziness, its chronic understaffing for the sheer number of flights operating at any given time. Some of those folks work their butts off only to catch flack from crews, and that isn't fair. Mainline & Piedmont MANAGEMENT has dropped the ball on hiring and retention (why go to the airport when you can make more at McD?) for Express hub operations...and Lord only knows how much $$$ in delays, wasted fuel, and passenger misconnects it costs them.

PIT is a ghost town so they can't claim the same excuse. If anything, I'd say it is a concerted effort at a slowdown.

 

CVG, A Terminal, Hands Down.

 

When it comes to just plain poor quality crap, nothing will ever compare to the United Express personnel in IAD. The ground folks are DGS and are worthless. The ops folks are skywest I think and even more worthless. I am so glad I'm not flying on the United side anymore. I dreaded every flight in and out of IAD because of those folks.

"ARE YOU READY TO BEARD!?!?!?!?!" Where's my gun...

 

Just flew into IAD today with UAEX... holy crap!!! Those people move slower than molasses uphill in the winter!

 

We definately have a winner. IAD ground support blows donkey balls...

 

Okay, first of all, I don't think anybody is worse the PHL as far as ramper's go. But yeah PIT is bad. We had problems a few years back with them with our A/C sitting off the gates waiting for (No joke) upwards of an hour for somebody to marshal us into a gate. Then PSA has them using a form so they can track if we leave the aircraft, when we leave the gate area, if we go to the bathroom, when we come back, when we get the release, when we are ready to board, when we are back at the aircraft, etc. Then once we leave the gate and if we are late they use that sheet and fudge the numbers a bit to code the delay on the flight crews.

 

the laziest ramp crews are the eagle ones in SJU. they are never around and routinely load bags 15 minutes after departure time. Once i saw one of them abandon a dead tug in the middle of a taxiway. It actually blocked access to the runway because of the line of atr's that formed.

 

Not to disagree with any of you....I fueled @ MSN for a year and witnessed my share of bad experiences with the ground crews. All I wanted to do was get gas on the darn planes and you'd think that some of these ground crews would get it figured out that when the fuel load comes across the wires....that maybe they'd want to inform the fueler what the load actually was. You could radio it over, call it in to our dispatch fueler, write it on the white board, or tell me what the load is when you see me hook up the single point. You'd think that after 12 months of working alongside these people that some sort of working routine/relationship would develop.....wrong.

I don't know why any of you are suprised by this. You pay these people $8.50/hour and you're going to attract $8.50/hr type of talent. My favorite situation was walking through the United backroom to capture a load on a plane sitting at the gate (not parked) only to find the entire ground crew eating lunch, while there was a line of unhappy riders out front giving the manager the 3rd degree. Meanwhile, in the Comair backroom everyone is playing Xbox while their plane is awaiting pushback.

Quiting that job was the best job I've ever quit.

 

I understand that they all probably don't like their jobs, I've worked my share of jobs I hated. But I did it. I don't think it's too much to ask for them to just do their job. If they don't like it, they should quit so the rest of us don't have to suffer their apathy. I'm not asking for them to go above and beyond.

Another example from today: We had a few elderly folks on our flight today that needed a van to take them from the airplane to the elevator to get up to the terminal. We requested it when we called in range. Then we confirmed that it was on the way when we parked. Then we called again 10 minutes later. Then I went up to the gate to talk to the gate agent to see if she knew what was going on. 10 more minutes passed before the van showed up. These elderly passengers had to sit on a hot airplane with no air cart or apu for over 20 minutes, and we couldn't tell them anything about when the van was coming. We weren't told anything aside from "it's on the way." It's not like we suprised the ground crew with this. We called it when we were in range.

We asked the driver what happened, and he said he's not sure, he just started his shift and was told to come to our airplane. We figured out that the previous guy had left early, and they just waited for the next guy to get there to send him out. Fine. Whatever. I'm not even saying that they should have found someone else to drive the van, which they could have. But what they could have done was told us that it may be a while, that way we could start #2 and cool the airplane down. Tell us something. "It's on the way" is not good enough when what they mean is "it's sitting there waiting for someone to show up to work to drive it."

 

I was in PIT and we had called for a wheelchair for an older lady. I called again on the ground, and then once more after the FA told me that it hadn't come yet. I went up to the gate agent to see what the holdup was and the gate agent said, "I've called 'em, but they aren't here yet." I pointed to a wheelchair about 15 feet away and said, "How about that one?" Long story short I went over and got the wheelchair for that dumb@ss and got the poor old lady off of the sweltering plane. His lack of braincells rivaled a 30 year meth addict with Alzheimer's.