Frustration takes off among air travelers

It looked like the worst line in the history of lines.

Like 1960s-era Soviets waiting for bread, passengers created a near-endless queue at the security checkpoint in Terminal D of Philadelphia International Airport at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Dismay had its place in line, as did panic and anger. If unhappiness were rain, a monsoon would have soaked the blue carpet. If frustration were heat, human flesh would have melted.

"This is the most incompetent airport in the world!" moaned Judy Albert, a Voorhees woman entertaining the ever-diminishing notion that she would be taking her 8-year-old granddaughter on a plane to Sarasota, Fla.

"We'll miss our flight. Only this airport gives me grief. It's horrendous."

There is a sort of madness to flying this summer. It is becoming spectacularly difficult to get on a plane and go somewhere. And Philly fliers in particular have much to be unhappy about.

At Philadelphia airport in June, 59 percent of flights arrived on time, and 61 percent took off on time.

Those numbers are among the worst in the United States, according to the Department of Transportation. In fact, the Philadelphia airport was next-to-last in on-time departures.

Meanwhile, delays throughout America are at the highest level in 12 years, the department said.

And, the department added in a new report, the number of passengers in the first five months of 2007 is up 1.8 percent over the same period last year. In Philadelphia, passenger totals increased by a similar amount, according to airport spokeswoman Phyllis VanInstendal.

Summer travel figures have yet to be calculated. But summertime traditionally means more passengers and more delays. Weather triggers most delays, and summer thunderstorms wreck planes' schedules, FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac said.

Hurricane Dean did that this weekend, cancelling flights from Philadelphia to the Dominican Republic on Saturday and Jamaica yesterday.

There's still more bad Philly news. US Airways racked up the highest number of lost and damaged bags of any major airline in June, government figures showed.

So, oh yeah, stuff is roiling at the airport.

"Things are tough when you fly in or out of Philly," said Liz Craighead, a 19-year-old college student from Roxborough on her way to New Hampshire. "I love Philly. But this airport is notorious."

What travelers face is an agglomeration of impediments.

You plan an itinerary, pack bags, kennel the dog, segregate carry-on liquids.