Originally Posted by NeoOfTheCRS
earlier this year they had an ERJ running the route which was an upgrade from the Beechcraft BUT it was always horribly late for no apparent reason other than groundhandling delays. Terribly frustrating for such a short route in a relatively uncrowded airspace (neither EYW or FLL were PHL!)
Actually it's a PSA CRJ. The problems stemmed from FLL congestion, South Florida afternoon t-storms, and the occasional other ground handling delay. The aircraft has been routed DCA-MCO-FLL-EYW-FLL-EYW-FLL-EYW-FLL-MCO-DCA each day.... with turns 30 minutes and under scheduled on most. Once there is one delay, the rest just cascade, and about the second round trip FLL-EYW, the storms start to pop up.
Ground handling at EYW has very rarely caused a delay... they turn CRJs in 15 minutes frequently to try and make up time. FLL congestion and weather causes the problems.