Monroe Regional Airport’s new terminal was unveiled only last week, but already airport staff and city officials are working to address kinks in operations for the new terminal building.
For one, passengers initially were directed to the old terminal building to collect their baggage upon arrival. They would exit the new terminal building and walk about 100 yards outside on a dirty unpaved path to the old building, which contains remnants of debris.
However, in the last couple days airport officials have changed that to a system that allows for more convenience, according to airport director Cleve Norrell: : curbside baggage claim.
Signs with arrows and airport skycap Albert Betson were directing arriving passengers to the curbside outside the new terminal building Tuesday as passengers donned their jackets to wait outside, muttering to each other, “Is this really baggage claim?” and “Are they going to bring it to us?”
Many walking outside said they first thought it was some kind of joke until the luggage trolley pulled up.
Former Monroe resident Sandra Clark, 49, said the new airport terminal itself was beautiful, even state-of-the art, but it wasn’t pleasant to be waiting outside in the cold.
“It’s OK, but it could have been better planning,” she said.
“That’s as bad as the short-term parking,” added Karen Stiles of Bernice. She and her husband said signage for the parking lot was poor, and they had to circle a few times before figuring out where to park.
According to Norrell, this baggage claim system is in an experimental stage as airport staff and airlines’ representatives establish the most convenient way to deliver passengers their luggage.
Now that the new terminal is in operation, the former terminal will be torn down and construction on the a new building will begin where car rental and baggage claim will be located.
Furthermore, it will still be a few more days until passengers arriving at the new terminal can deplane onto loading bridges connected to the airplanes. As of now, many passengers still have to deplane onto the tarmac using stairs and enter the terminal building from a ramp, Norrell said.
That’s because the markings on the pavement indicating where planes should park are too far from the terminal building, so the loading bridges don’t reach the aircraft doors, airport staff learned last week.
“That’s still annoying, that you don’t have a jetway,” Hill said while waiting for her baggage.
On Thursday, Monroe Public Works Director Tom Janway had said he expected the markings to be replaced by early this week. Janway couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
Norrell said the airport hasn’t yet repainted the pavement markings on the tarmac, but he expected a design plan to be submitted to the engineers at consulting firm LPA Group on Tuesday afternoon. Work on the pavement markings could start as early as Wednesday, weather permitting, he said.
“With this wet weather, lines can’t be painted. Things got to dry out,” Norrell said.
The bridges are 76 feet long while the pavement markings are 106 feet away from the terminal. In the interim, only Delta Air Lines’ aircraft can park using the markings because they are close enough to the terminal for the loading bridges reach the planes, Norrell said.
Consulting firm LPA Group of South Carolina was charged with overseeing the new airport terminal’s construction, and Lincoln Builders of Ruston completed construction of the 58,000-square-foot terminal.
The original design was submitted by an engineer with the airlines, Norrell said. LPA took that information and other engineers laid it out on the pavement. Then airport crews painted the markings, he said.
According to Norrell, “it was a joint effort on the screw up.”
“I think everything in the next couple of days will be normal,” he assured.
Mayor Jamie Mayo said he will be visiting the airport at the end of this week to test the the loading bridges with the new pavement markings.
The repainting isn’t costing the city anything, but neither Mayo nor Norrell could say who would be footing the bill. They said they would know by the end of the week.
Initially, airport officials thought the bridges weren’t fitting with the aircraft parked in the terminal, but later city officials discovered the markings on the tarmac were off.
As of last week, Delta and Continental Airlines both confirmed their aircraft fit with the current passenger loading bridges, and Norrell said Tuesday an American Airlines representative also inspected the bridges on Friday and confirmed they would work with American’s aircraft as well.
However, Norrell noted that even when the pavements are re-marked, not all planes will be compatible with the bridges, for instance, Continental’s Saab 340 aircraft.
No comments:
Post a Comment