Winter Wonderland
The long awaited first big storm finally hit the DTW hub and the northeast causing a full deice operation and many cancelled flights. During the pm shift on Tuesday and all day Wednesday we cancelled 80 departing main line flights and deiced well over 90% of all departures.
Our ESE deice team did a great job keeping our fleet moving and customers safe. Total departures over the 48 hour period were 455 with only 30 flights experiencing long taxi out times, which were driven more by runway and field conditions. Many ESEs spent long hours in deice trucks and on tug plows keeping the DTW Hub operating, many thanks to all. A special thanks to Paul Gildersleeve who took Crystal Knotek, our Senior Vice President, up in a deice bucket and showed her first hand how we deice international wide body aircraft. I can tell you, Crystal was very impressed. Also during this period our aircraft and ground equipment mechanics did a great job working on equipment and keeping the fleet flying, many thanks.
Inside the terminal our customer service team handled thousands of customers who were unable to get to the northeast. Many of the customers who could not get out of DTW on Tuesday night were waiting in line early Wednesday morning and some spent most of Wednesday with us. Although frustrated with the weather, I spoke to several customers who appreciated the service they received by our employees.
I guess the moment I will always remember from this week was in the peak of a full winter operation, we watched one our own, Cheri LeBlanc get married at the water feature. I know this was a special moment for Cheri and all of us who were there to witness this special event.
In closing, thanks to all for stepping up and working hard through a difficult operation.
Mark
Our ESE deice team did a great job keeping our fleet moving and customers safe. Total departures over the 48 hour period were 455 with only 30 flights experiencing long taxi out times, which were driven more by runway and field conditions. Many ESEs spent long hours in deice trucks and on tug plows keeping the DTW Hub operating, many thanks to all. A special thanks to Paul Gildersleeve who took Crystal Knotek, our Senior Vice President, up in a deice bucket and showed her first hand how we deice international wide body aircraft. I can tell you, Crystal was very impressed. Also during this period our aircraft and ground equipment mechanics did a great job working on equipment and keeping the fleet flying, many thanks.
Inside the terminal our customer service team handled thousands of customers who were unable to get to the northeast. Many of the customers who could not get out of DTW on Tuesday night were waiting in line early Wednesday morning and some spent most of Wednesday with us. Although frustrated with the weather, I spoke to several customers who appreciated the service they received by our employees.
I guess the moment I will always remember from this week was in the peak of a full winter operation, we watched one our own, Cheri LeBlanc get married at the water feature. I know this was a special moment for Cheri and all of us who were there to witness this special event.
In closing, thanks to all for stepping up and working hard through a difficult operation.
Mark
posted by Mark Gurney at 11:54 AM
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