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Old Jun 28, 2017, 3:23 pm
  #1  
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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.
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Old Jun 28, 2017, 6:18 pm
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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.
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Old Jun 28, 2017, 6:19 pm
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Originally Posted by livebetter_travelmore
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.
Very common to have delays waiting for a gate at CLT at that time of day. Despite its reputation as a backwater by some on FT that is one very busy airport.
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Old Jun 28, 2017, 7:13 pm
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doesn't bode well for my 30 minute connection at CLT on Saturday evening! (don't know yet the gates, either). Oh well, at least there are plenty of hotels near CLT and a 7 am flight the next morning to DCA...
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Old Jun 28, 2017, 7:59 pm
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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.
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Old Jun 28, 2017, 8:14 pm
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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.
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Old Jun 28, 2017, 9:16 pm
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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.
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Old Jun 29, 2017, 8:36 am
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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.
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Old Jun 29, 2017, 9:21 am
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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)...
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Old Jun 29, 2017, 12:30 pm
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Originally Posted by newyorkgeorge
Very common to have delays waiting for a gate at CLT at that time of day. Despite its reputation as a backwater by some on FT that is one very busy airport.
I think its more that it is a heavily banked airport
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Old Jun 29, 2017, 1:43 pm
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You guys have a weird way of spelling ORD.

20 minute taxi and 20 minute hold to wait 10 minutes for a gate.
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Old Jun 30, 2017, 5:51 am
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Originally Posted by livebetter_travelmore
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.
There are very few airports in the US that ATC controls gates at, KCLT is not one of them. Gates at most airports are controlled by ramp control which depending on the facility is usually run by the airport authority or the airline.
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Old Jun 30, 2017, 6:54 am
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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.
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Old Jun 30, 2017, 7:25 am
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Originally Posted by aztimm
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.
My biggest pet peeve with waiting for a gate for a long time is the fact you can't get up to use the restroom. If it's waiting for 5 minutes, not a big deal. 40 minutes though can cause problems for some people.
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Old Jun 30, 2017, 8:57 am
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Originally Posted by GNRMatt
My biggest pet peeve with waiting for a gate for a long time is the fact you can't get up to use the restroom. If it's waiting for 5 minutes, not a big deal. 40 minutes though can cause problems for some people.
A few times that this happened I remember the captain saying that we were free to get up and use the restroom, and people taking him up on it. I can't remember if it happened for my 40 min at AUS in April, but I do remember it happening when we were waiting over an hour at CLT about 2 years ago.

I think if you really have to go then the best advice is beg forgiveness rather than ask permission.
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