Stuck waiting for gates CLT
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Austin, TX
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Stuck waiting for gates CLT
Wow, did ATC or ground crew go on strike or something in CLT? On AA 1840. Touched down 5pm. Been sitting on tarmac for 20 minutes with some 9-10 other arriving flights. Sheesh. Have experienced this on an early arriving flight but never saw so many other arriving planes too all waiting this long. My first time into CLT.
#2
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I use CLT a decent amount and it's not uncommon to have to wait for a few minutes, particularly if your inbound is a little early. The B, C and D gates are heavily used and aren't empty for long after the flight has departed.
#3
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Wow, did ATC or ground crew go on strike or something in CLT? On AA 1840. Touched down 5pm. Been sitting on tarmac for 20 minutes with some 9-10 other arriving flights. Sheesh. Have experienced this on an early arriving flight but never saw so many other arriving planes too all waiting this long. My first time into CLT.
#5
Join Date: Nov 2014
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As a frequent CLT flyer, I have been wondering about this also as it seems to be happening more often. Or maybe I have been lucky and arriving early on more flights lately. It seems like the earlier your flight arrives before the scheduled time, the longer you have to wait for the ground crew to show up. Do they really cut the staffing that close? Seems like it also contributes to the general traffic congestion around the ramps and taxiways at CLT which keep getting more crowded, especially late afternoon.
#6
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Have seen this far more at PHX than CLT. In fact, not sure we've seen this at CLT, but maybe 30% of the time at PHX.
Cheers.
Cheers.
#7
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 23
Next Summer in 2018 AA will be expanding into the A Concourse. The non-AA airlines will be moving to the new A North Concourse and whatever gates are left behind AA has said they will take over. Hopefully this will resolve a lot of the gate waiting that is common these days for AA at CLT.
#8
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Morning and early afternoon flights are usually no problem. The flights to and from MIA always have 40 minutes plus of time over air time. The AM flights often arrive nearly 30 minutes early. The late afternoon and early evening is a different story at CLT. Also CLT has much later operations going than most of the other hubs. Post 10PM flights are common.
#9
Join Date: Feb 2002
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CLT only has 47 mainline gates for somewhere around 335 mainline / E175 flights; actually less than that during the TATL push because the 330's often take up two gates. CLT sees higher gate utilization than the other hubs so the odds are very good that if your flight arrives early you will end up waiting. This congestion is included in the block times so the lack of gates rarely leads to late arrivals (the Op's flight only arrived 3 minutes late)...
#10
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#12
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 1,664
Wow, did ATC or ground crew go on strike or something in CLT? On AA 1840. Touched down 5pm. Been sitting on tarmac for 20 minutes with some 9-10 other arriving flights. Sheesh. Have experienced this on an early arriving flight but never saw so many other arriving planes too all waiting this long. My first time into CLT.
#13
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I think everyone here can share stories about waiting for gates. Heck, just in April here at AUS we had to wait about 40 min for a vacant gate.
I've had it happen more times than I care to remember.
That said, I think I'd prefer to wait for a gate than deal with going down stairs and a bus transfer to the terminal.
I've had it happen more times than I care to remember.
That said, I think I'd prefer to wait for a gate than deal with going down stairs and a bus transfer to the terminal.
#14
Join Date: Jan 2011
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I think everyone here can share stories about waiting for gates. Heck, just in April here at AUS we had to wait about 40 min for a vacant gate.
I've had it happen more times than I care to remember.
That said, I think I'd prefer to wait for a gate than deal with going down stairs and a bus transfer to the terminal.
I've had it happen more times than I care to remember.
That said, I think I'd prefer to wait for a gate than deal with going down stairs and a bus transfer to the terminal.
#15
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I think if you really have to go then the best advice is beg forgiveness rather than ask permission.