SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – “I feel your pain and understand your frustration,” said Springfield-Branson National Airport Public Information and Marketing Manager Kent Boyd. “I deal with it on a daily basis.”
Boyd was referring to numerous complaints the airport gets from fliers who say their plane had to sit on the runway for extended periods of time after arriving at the airport and waiting to park at a terminal gate. They said that tends to happen in the evening flights as there is an extended wait for their luggage to arrive at baggage claim.
“When I’m on a flight that comes in around 8:30 to 9 p.m, pilots hold short (stop) on the runway and announce that they can’t get to a gate because it hasn’t been assigned and they can’t get in touch with the ground crew,” said Branson resident and frequent flier Paul O’Neal. “They say that they call on their cellphones and radios but get no reply. And many times that results in an extensive 20-30 minute delay in getting into the gate. The last time I flew in during the evening, they stated they only had three ground crew members for all the evening flights. To me, that’s unacceptable for the airfare prices we pay for these days.”
Boyd agrees that there’s a problem. But when it comes to complaining, people are often barking up the wrong tree.
“Let’s suppose that your plane is not brought up to the gate right away,” he explained. “The captain is very likely to get on the P.A. and say, ‘The airport ground crew is nowhere to be found.’ He’s using ‘airport’ in a generic sense. But what he really means is, ‘My AIRLINE ground crew is nowhere to be found.”
The complaints are so common that the airport website even has a section called “This is what Airlines do, this is what Airports do” that explains the division of duties.
“Airlines do the following; this is not a complete list:
- They sell tickets and provide transportation on airplanes.
- They determine the cost of a ticket.
- They fly airplanes.
- They cancel flights.
- They update the flight schedules displayed on video screens at airports.
- They staff the ticket counters and gates.
- They park and push back airplanes at the terminal.
- They load and unload your luggage.
- They are responsible for lost or damaged luggage.
- They de-ice airplanes during winter weather.
- They maintain and repair airplanes.
The ‘Airport’ owns, operates, and maintains the physical facility on the ground: the terminal, runways, taxiways, and so on.”
So ground crews who get the plane to the gate and transfer the luggage are airline employees, not airport employees. This means the airlines should be held responsible for not having enough ground personnel to get the plane from the tarmac to the gate and for the baggage unloaded.
“It is very frustrating, and it does affect the airport’s reputation,” Boyd said. “That’s one reason we’re so passionate about defending ourselves. We’re not trying to pass the buck. We’re trying to educate people as to how this works and to tell them that if enough people let the airline know there’s a problem, perhaps things will change. But I honestly think that so many people spend so much time trying to blame somebody else instead of the airline. The airlines are able to skate. The airport is essentially a landlord. It owns the physical facilities, as the buildings, runways, jetways, and baggage carousels. The TSA is federal government, the FAA oversees air traffic control. An airport is really an interesting and bizarre mix of businesses that people tend to think of as being one entity. But in reality you have the airport, which is owned by the city of Springfield. You have all these private companies like airlines, restaurants, gift stores and rental cars. Then you have the federal government running the checkpoints and air traffic control. So it’s one big happy family.”
Boyd did point out that the problem tends to happen at night not just because of smaller crews but also because of a buildup of delays around the country during the day.
“The bottom line is all the airlines in Springfield are running bare-minimum staffs that are enough people to keep things running smoothly as long as the flight schedules are smooth,” Boyd pointed out. “But if the flight schedules get disrupted, that’s when all hell breaks loose. For example, let’s say an airline has three flights coming in at 8, 9, and 10 at night. Then the 8 o’clock flight gets delayed by weather and doesn’t get in until 10 minutes before that second-flight arrives. All of a sudden, you have one ground crew trying to handle two flights. And now they have less than an hour to handle that third flight coming in at 10.”
O’Neal admitted he was unaware that the airlines, not the airport, were responsible for the ground crews.
“But as far as changing my opinion, if they are maintaining and running an airport they need to probably change some contractual agreements with the airlines so the passenger has a better experience of flying in and out of that airport,” O’Neal said. “I mean, Branson gets 9 million visitors a year.”
“We’ve always had these problems with the airlines to a certain extent,” Boyd reacted. “But it’s gotten worse since the pandemic with the same hiring issues that all businesses have experienced. The airlines have trouble finding people, training people, and retaining them. A lot of people think the airport-airline relationship is a traditional one where if something isn’t right, we can shake our collective finger at the airline. In reality, we can’t do that. The airlines won’t accept it. They have a virtual monopoly, and the federal government requires that we treat all airlines the same when it comes to lease agreements. So we negotiate with all of them at the same time. And one thing they absolutely will not talk about is performance measures. People wonder why we just don’t kick them out. Well, that would be cutting off our nose to spite our face because there are very few airlines around the country and only four or five that we can talk to about airline service. If we kick one out, you’re depending on the others to fill that void. So we may end up losing some of the air service, and we’ll also lose competition in the market. With fewer airlines competing, fares are going to go up. From an airport perspective, it’s really a Catch-22.”
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