ironmanjt

Most of the flights between DCA-EWR these days are operated by GoJet on the CRJ-550s, and as commented in another thread these have been super unreliable lately, canceling at the drop of a hat.

I took a glance at the schedule a few times in the last few weeks, and for the flights that are not cancelled, I checked where the plane was coming from (assuming EWR) to see if it was realistic they'd be on time.

Very often (20+ times in the last two weeks) I've found GoJet flights into DCA from RIC (Richmond, 8+ times), SCE (State College PA, 2 times), and today PQI (Preque Isle). There's also been a couple of others I've seen that I'm not remembering. Always look to be non-passenger flights with an empty seatmap, and usually (but not always) coming into DCA in the morning.

Is this just GoJet repositioning planes to attempt to resume their schedule? If so, this has to be costing a small fortune in crews and fuel to run so many empty flights. I assume if this is happening at DCA it's happening other places too.

EWR764

Most likely crew and aircraft movements. The cost to ferry is probably less than penalties for not having aircraft or crew to operate a contracted flight, or to avoid an anticipated disruption due to weather, EWR airspace, etc.

Happens a lot with the regionals, and there are even a lot of scheduled non-revenue ferry/crew movements to get airplanes and people to domiciles or maintenance bases that sometimes are not the same as the mainline partner.

Repooc17

The effect of "consolidating" an already reduced number of daily flights (cancelling multiple flights between DCA and EWR to help with EWR traffic) is the fare. I am constantly seeing about $1K fare from United when competitions are running $300-$400. This route can be easily purchased for under $300 roundtrip with some advance purchase period.

lincolnjkc

RIC is a crew base for G7 - not sure if it's also a MX base or not but it would make some sense to position from RIC... Of all places to ferry from it's probably one of the cheapest/logistically easiest (one of my last G7 RIC-IAD flights went at 8,000 feet and something like 40 minutes gate to gate

StuMcIlwain

I've seen GoJet ferry flights from one outstation to another when there are weather or mechanical cancellations. I don't know how they decide whether to ferry an aircraft/crew from B to A and cancel a flight from B instead (Better alternatives for the passengers from B? Fewer passengers booked from B? Crewing issues?), but it's worked to my advantage several times.

priobagtag

I've seen a lot of ferry flights to outstations when DCA-EWR sector disruptions occur (usually ground stops/delays in EWR) - specifically seen them to go places for XXX-EWR. I've also looked at some outstation cancellation/delay statistics over the last two months (data taken from two months prior to July 18 or so) - 25% cancellation on the EWR-ITH-EWR turnaround, some of the ACK-EWR's had 25-30% cancellation, EWR-SCE also had a similar rate, nighttime EWR-PQI at 25%. A lot of the evening GJ services have been impacted a lot with EWR struggles. Of course, a lot of these are due to weather disruptions which then create capacity issues/congestion at EWR. One of the EWR-MHT is operated by Republic and had similar issues. EWR-AVP has GJ service and had a lower, but still above 5% cancellation rate for some flight numbers. For context: Any flight number above a 5% cancellation rate is reported to the DOT.

A lot of times out of these routes, especially if there is a frequency of two flights a day, the later/nighttime flight is the one impacted by cancellations the most.

Wonder if some these routes will eventually be switched back to IAD (which is also a GJ MX base....) to alleviate crowding and disruption meltdowns at EWR, or split between the two hubs.

narvik

AVP-EWR GoJet service cancelled 4 times in the 7 days from Friday July, 14th, to July 21st.

My flight tomorrow also has a positioning flight from PQI-AVP, currently in-air.

ironmanjt

Very curious why so many positioning flights from PQI

priobagtag

Brutal! Do most people in your experience drive to EWR when AVP flights are cancelled or do they wait until the next day/flight?
Hope your flight goes smoothly!

SS255

This happened to me a few weeks ago, in the prime of the meltdown. Once I saw my AVP-EWR GoJet flight take a delay that would cause me to misconnect to the 2nd-to-last EWR-LAX flight of the day (with the last flight showing completely full), I got re-booked on the Allentown bus. I hopped in my mom�s car, and she got me to ABE with about 15 minutes to spare. My back-up plan was to take the 5:30pm flight to ORD. That ended up canceling.

My AVP-EWR flight took a 5+ hour delay. I was surprised it didn�t get canceled.

I�ve also driven to and from EWR after cancellations.

priobagtag

Wow! I wonder if the route would be more reliable if they ran a bus to AVP. In a course of a 5 hour delay, you can more or less get a bus to and from EWR I had the opportunity to take the bus to ABE and thought it was a smooth and comfortable experience - I asked a lot of the locals on the bus if they usually take it, and they said it can be much easier to drive (rather than bus) to EWR themselves depending on cost/time - and only used the bus when they traveled for work. Glad you were able to make it out though, how tight was 15 minutes for bus check-in at ABE?

For a lot of my ITH travel, I worry about the cancellation rate especially when winter weather comes into play. SYR/ROC/BUF or busing to EWR/NYC can be much more reliable for a short trip - which sucks, as I am a huge fan of the simplicity and quickness of ITH - and SYR takes a ton of ITH's catchment area in terms of passengers, and I want to support the local airport of ITH. I notice ITH (and AVP surely) are some of the first to be canceled when disruptions are bound to happen, given they are short regional routes. And I feel like all the planes are repositioned somehow. Lots of DCA-ITH's and vice versa recently... even saw a SYR-ITH twice. If only D Overall, I'm really curious what everyone does in these communities when disruptions happen - how many drive to alternate locations, as far as the connecting point vs. wait for the next available flight.

And speaking of buses.... found an old news article from 2009 on Ithaca requesting a grant for a back-up bus service to Newark as passengers were not pleased about the reliability. Don't think it came to fruition but would be great nowadays for our respective airports.

Thanks all for listening to my frustrations. As much as I love GJ crew and service, these cancellation/delay rates are getting rough to witness. I can't imagine the impact on the crew with all these repositionings.

narvik

Cheers.
All went smooth as silk.
Took off 6am, landed 25 minutes later, and went straight to our open & free gate.
30 minutes early.
Although, it's still strange how GoJet is positioning their flights as seen in this thread.
Obviously we are missing some key info that only they are privy to.
Also, on a side-note; service was in stark contrast to previous GoJet flights; no flight deck announcements, no drink/food service whatsoever. Either it's completely up to the FA and we just had a lazy one, or there was no catering at AVP. Not sure.



I just book ex EWR maybe 50% of the time, but if I take AVP-EWR I will leave enough time at EWR to make the drive if the flight should get canceled.
My son, a few years back, took a considerable offer from UA ($500 IIRC) as they were overbooked on AVP-EWR, and then took a UA-paid taxi together with another passenger to EWR still making his connection.

SS255

I had plenty of time. It was my first time taking the Allentown bus, so I had to figure out the logistics. You have to go downstairs past baggage claim, The �boarding� time was 20 minutes prior to departure. In reality, the bus pulled up a few minutes late, and then it took about 10 minutes to scan and load all of the checked and carry on luggage, and scan everyone�s boarding pass. The bus was very comfortable. Much preferable to a CR-2, which is what UA runs on the AVP-ORD route.

I had been monitoring the AVP-EWR flights for several days prior. The trend I noticed was that if the morning EWR-AVP flight got cancelled, the afternoon AVP-EWR flight got cancelled. But, if the evening EWR-AVP flight got cancelled, sometimes UA would run one of these unusual ferry flights to AVP for the following morning�s 6am flight, and sometimes the flight would cancel. I have one more afternoon AVP-EWR flight booked in November. After that, it�s either the 6am or I just book the Allentown bus from the get-go.

IADdelayed

IME, depends on the FA. I've been regularly doing IAD-RIC on the 550 (roughly 25 min flight time). Captain always announces that due to short flight time, there won't be any service. However, recently had a FA (despite the announcement) do full drink service in F, come through with snack basket, and manage to collect the trash prior to landing (total rock star). Some just did drinks, some handed out those tiny water bottles, and my last flight the FA basically never left the jump seat. IMO flights that short don't need any service, but there are definitely some FAs who go the extra mile.

narvik

Another GoJet flight AVP-EWR with ~23 minute flight time. FA asked for drink choice in F before takeoff, and came through cabin after takeoff with snacks and the drinks.
I can see how some FAs won't bother with this though. It was quite a task for the FA to get it all done in such a short time.

No weird plane positioning today; plane came in last night from EWR.