Philadelphia to Tampa on US Air

Please allow me to rant.

The Philadelphia Airport blows goats. Let me clarify that a bit, though, by saying that the staff of US Air in the Philadelphia Airport blows goats.

Last night, I was due to fly to Tampa on US Air with a scheduled departure time of 8:35. I arrived about an hour and a half early....get through security rather painlessly, get a quick snack and make it to my gate. I get there in the neighborhood of 7:20 - 7:30 and the place is absolutely packed. My gate reads "Los Angeles 7:35." Turns out that the crew on the PHL to LAX flight noticed a mechanical problem with the plane and, as such, the passengers and crew had to deplane. A new plane was going to arrive to take them to LAX with a new departure time of 9:35. It sucks for them, but its always better to be safe than sorry.

Now, you are wondering, what does this have to do with my flight scheduled to depart at 8:35? Its funny you should ask. My plane was coming in from San Francisco with a scheduled arrival time of 7:45 or so. Because the LAX plane was stuck in the gate, they kept the SFO flight up in a holding pattern pending the removal of the LAX plane. Rather than making an on the fly gate change, they kept it circling the runway. It didn't land until 8:21...and when it did land they moved it to a different gate on top of that! Had they done that 35 minutes earlier, the TPA flight would have left at close to 8:35. Instead, we closed the door at 9:35.

The Philly airport evidently also has runway issues, as we stayed on the taxiway/tarmac system for 50 minutes until we went wheels up at 10:25. Bear in mind this was for an 8:35 flight. The Philadelphia Airport infrastructure has more issues than National Geographic and would do well to address some of them.