I'm following this story with interest because it explains a strange flight I just had out of Athens a couple of weeks ago. And it may impact your travel to Greece, since US Airways codeshares some Athens flights with Olympic Airlines and seems positioned to take over more OA flights in the future.
Forget Philadelphia - We'll Need Fuel in Boston
Before takeoff, the pilot came on over the intercom and announced that our Athens-to-Philadelphia-bound US Airways flight would instead be landing in Boston, Massachusetts for refueling before later proceeding on to Philadelphia. Since many passengers with connections would miss them, we were assured that we would be re-booked in flight and told of our new schedules once we landed in Boston.At the time, it was suggested by one crewmember that the high temperatures in Athens were interfering with the fueling process, perhaps causing the gas to expand too much, but the day was mild for late June.
There was a flurry of cell phones powering up again as dozens of passengers around me made frantic international calls to warn their loved ones that they would be missing their connecting flights. For those bound for Philadelphia, it was expected the extra stop would add a couple of hours to our ultimate arrival time.
Even though we were unaware of the "real" reason for the announcement, it was a tense flight. Just looking at the map in the back of the in-flight magazine made many passengers aware of the simple fact that Boston and Philadelphia are not that far away from each other; the idea of having just enough fuel to reach Boston but not to make it on to Philadelphia was unnerving. And if your ultimate destination was actually Boston, you were still out of luck; the pilot announced that no one would be allowed off the plane in Boston as Customs had no facilities in the terminal we'd be using.
Now the US Airways pilots say that US Airways is forcing them to underfuel their planes. The problem with this is if an airport is closed or if the plane is kept in the air longer than expected, it may run out of fuel prematurely.
The US Airways pilots are saying this is a cost-cutting measure by US Airways which just cuts the safety margin too thin.
And from a public relations perspective, it's also a nightmare. With so many airlines facing severe financial challenges, my first thought was that US Airways had discovered its credit was no longer any good in Athens. While we all felt we weren't being told the truth, we weren't aware that we may have all been at greater risk during the flight if anything had interfered with our landing plans, either at Boston or Philadelphia.
And what actually happened on my flight? Two hours from "Boston" the pilot came back on the intercom, announced that we'd had a good tailwind all the way from Athens, and that we'd be landing directly in Philadelphia as previously scheduled.
More:
ABC15: US Airways pilots: Safety at risk with pressures to cut back
CNN Money: US Air pilots feel pressured to cut fuel
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