rkkwan

Came back on CO98 last week, and I have a minor issue with CO.

This flight and most of the flights I listed last summer are still using Terminal B for arrival daily, but they've stopped given out little flyers at HKG about it. Onboard, there was only one short announcement prior to arrival, and I think the inflight magazine says Terminal B are for certain international arrival for summer only.

Many of the passengers on my flight are surprised we arrived at B and an AirTrain ride was necessary to get back to C. Or they have to call the driver/greeters to come to B to pick them up.

They should just make it official for those listed widebody flights to be arriving at Terminal B year round and let everybody knows about it. Same way that Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Washington flights use Terminal A.

COFan

Is C really that full? I was on CO 19 from LGW in Dec, we arrived into B, about 5 min before 2 other 777 and 1 767-200, so that made a total of 3 777 and 1 767-200 unloading at the same time in B. luckily i was in BF and our plane was first so I was in and out in about 20min. I was fine, but i noticed a large build up as I went through Passport control. my q's being was C also so over crowded that we had to use B? Isnt there something they can do to reduce the amount of inbound flights getting in at the same time? Or is there just that many international flights?

jannis

My experience with international arrivals in B are mixed (from TXL and LGW I think). Out of four only one was quick. Twice lines at immigration were really long. I don't mind taking the Airtrain to terminal C.

Olton Hall

When my flight from LGW arrive at B back in December, judging by the flights listed for baggage claim, it seemed all of CO's international flights were coming in to B. Not just 777 and 767's. The 757's were in there too. The lines were long but they moved but it took for ever to get through customs due to the pure volume of people putting their customs declarations in the bags and needing to dig them back out.

sbm12

They're up to a peak of 17 flights/day arriving at B now; it wsa 11 a couple months ago. They can't get the planes out of C3 fast enough to handle the mass of arrivals at the peak times. For the 752s they vary the city depending on which planes they need to turn more quickly to route to Florida, so TXL and BCN probably don't unless they divert, making them late enough to miss the rush, but the rest of the routes are a bit of a crap shoot.

Scott6067

I wonder how much the clean slate project will help make these international arrivals into B not needed. Sounds like from what people are saying and what CO said this weekend is the fact that the planes going into B cant get into the gates in C and thus when they move out of C2 to A one would think that they would be able to juggle more of the international planes back into all C arrivals.

sbm12

I don't think it'll help all that much. The international flights need to arrive in C3. Those gates are spaced correctly to handle the 752s (and the widebodies) all the way around, IIRC, which means they're handling as many as they can already. If FIS/Customs was connected to C1/C2 it might help, but that would be a long, depressing tunnel. I suppose they could arrive at C3 and then use a tug to push the plane to C1/2, but that makes relatively little difference versus just arriving at B.

rkkwan

Plus, they still want to spread out the passengers to use the immigration/customs facility at both B and C.

COFan

I asked at the mini-'Do about the use of B and if they would easy up at all. I was told that if your flying into EWR on a Intl flight between the hours of 1-2pm you have a good chance of using B. They just have so many Intl. inbounds durring that time they have no spare gates anywhere in C esp for the widebodies. So I would get use to using B at least until the build C-4 or just take over all of EWR ^