What’s the point of the airport if the flights are always going to get cancelled? ORH to JFK flight this morning cancelled.

Submitted by gm33 t3_yd09k1 in WorcesterMA

Flight to JFK this morning cancelled. Will miss my morning business meeting. Logan was not an option in this case. How can I rely and trust this service going forward if this keeps happening?

JetBlue or Mass DOT should at least have some direct bus from the airport to Logan for all the pax with a flight that departs shortly after arrival. Things happen, but this happens too much with no support and is completely unacceptable. Who should I contact to investigate this?

Also: who builds an airport in an area of so much fog?

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beanpole99 t1_itpprh7 wrote

Worcester has a cat iii ILS landing system on runway 11 which allows planes to land in very low visibility but only if the wind is from the east. Most of the time, the wind in this area is from the west and that runway (29) does not have the same landing system so planes can't land in extremely low visibility. Unfortunately, due to the geography of the hill it Is built on it is difficult or impossible to make runway 29 cat iii.

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jbcg t1_itpuxy4 wrote

fun detail! thanks for sharing.

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gm33 OP t1_itsq7sc wrote

Wow this is fascinating. What an absolutely awful location for an airport!

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beanpole99 t1_itsumf8 wrote

Tbf, at the time the airport was sited, they couldn't possibly have predicted the future needs of aviation. ORH was actually one of my favorite airports to land at (I no longer fly). You fly right over a major city which is a rare privilege, and that runway looks like it's just waiting for you. I might be nostalgic because that's where I did most of my training. 🙂

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gm33 OP t1_itsvxrh wrote

Thanks cool background! Thanks.

I’d love to take some flying lessons one day.

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beanpole99 t1_itswvk4 wrote

Schedule a discovery flight with an instructor. They used to be about $100 for a one hour lesson. You'll get to fly the plane and really experience flying. Even if this is as far as you go it's worth it.

Happy skies.

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inthe80s t1_itpd6ed wrote

Boston and Worcester are both showing a visibility of 0.00 miles right now, I'm guessing Logan has more expensive equipment allowing take offs in this pea soup.

With a direct bus trip to Logan it would add another 60-90 minutes from ORH. At that point you're missing your early meeting anyways.

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nonvideas t1_itps8hf wrote

The destination (NYC) is fogged out as well.

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pinklemonade7 t1_itq2lfw wrote

Bruh I couldn’t even see 50 feet ahead of me driving this morning

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Oyadonchano t1_itpawgw wrote

There's plenty of technology that will allow you to participate virtually in your Very Important Business Meeting without the waste of jet fuel. As a bonus you'll avoid the crushing indignity of the occasional canceled flight.

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JohnnyGoldwink t1_itpqxca wrote

Right? People are still catching flights for meetings? 🤯

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gm33 OP t1_itsqoe7 wrote

Yes, I suppose I should log into a few hundred person lunch and ball.

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JohnnyGoldwink t1_itsuy0h wrote

Oh it’s a pahty!

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gm33 OP t1_itsvfsl wrote

Yep, just saw that the return flight from JFK to ORH is cancelled, so guess I’m glad I’m at home already 😂

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Centrist_gun_nut t1_itpoua9 wrote

I'm not this kind of pilot, but I'm pretty sure the issue is that ILS landing equipment in Worcester has been broken for months, so the plane OP needs is still in New York.

Here's the plane I think they intended to use: on Flightaware .

I have no idea how to link NOTAMs but they were issued on 8/10 and appear active...

​

>!ORH 08/011 ORH NAV ILS RWY 29 DME u/S 2208101301-2304192000EST

​

I have no idea why they're not fixing it or if this is a typical turn around time for this sort of repair.

EDIT: Oh man, it's literally the same flight as when this last came up.

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gm33 OP t1_itsqjfy wrote

This is so fascinating! Thanks! I have never seen this site. I wish I could learn what all of these entries mean.

Why is the ILS broken for so long here? Especially since ORH is low visibility so often.

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SmartSherbet t1_itqe4n2 wrote

Weather happens. If I had a business meeting so important a missed flight would crush me, I'd travel the day before.

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jayeldee46 t1_itq6mdu wrote

AmTrak out of Providence is a good alternative for NYC meetings.

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jpm01609 t1_itpbekv wrote

ORH is a failure it is always fogged in and not enough flights

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lukewarm_sax t1_itptg0d wrote

Oof, I’m flying out of there this Friday, fingers crossed my flight doesn’t cancel 🤞

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screwyoumike t1_itqd7vc wrote

I’ve had flights from JFK to ORH canceled twice. One time I was alone and they got me into Boston and I had to Uber to Worcester to get my car. The next time- this past May- I was traveling with my 2 kids and one of their friends on a Saturday night and Jet Blue said they couldn’t get all 4 of us on a plane together till Tuesday. No hotel room offered. So it took me till 3am to get a rental car- so many other people in the same boat- and I had to drive to Worcester from JFK after paying nosebleed car rental prices that were more than the flights. Oh- and on top of that they lost one of our bags. I’m so over Worcester airport and unfortunately Logan is horrible on the weekends now due to the Sumner Tunnel construction so it will be Providence for me from here on out!

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legalpretzel t1_itrosjd wrote

Good luck with that. The flights are limited out of providence. Maybe not to JFK, but they cut back most options for other places that used to have non-stop flights from Providence (Oakland, Orlando, etc).

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hookhands t1_itqn7xq wrote

I had a morning JetBlue flight cancelled a couple years ago due to not selling enough seats. They did me the "favor" of rescheduling to an early evening flight out of Boston. So now I have to take the commuter rail for 2 hours and lose almost an entire day at my destination. Thanks.

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legalpretzel t1_itroemr wrote

We booked a jet blue flight out of providence in January with a 5:30 departure time on a Friday. Two weeks after booking they notified us that the flight schedule had changed and departure was now 9am. We had to reschedule to fly out of Logan, which wasn’t a huge issue but it does mean we have to leave Worcester much earlier than if we were flying out of providence.

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Pvt_Wierzbowski t1_itqwjun wrote

Vincent Adultman over here, needed to catch a flight to do a very important business transaction.

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amandaflash t1_itr3sf4 wrote

The weather was shit today for flying. 🤷🏼‍♀️

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IamaMentalGiant t1_itrg3jg wrote

ORH is a total boondoggle. It's difficult to get to from the highway, in a terrible place for weather and has managed to attract only a handful of daily flights. It's got to be incredibly expensive to keep the infrastructure open for the number of passengers it serves. But that's Massport I guess. You certainly take a big risk booking flights there.

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Enragedocelot t1_itpsmat wrote

I flew to Philly several times a few years ago and I’ve had 3 flight cancellations in 2 years, mind you I was only flying during thanksgiving / Christmas / Easter

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985thesportshub t1_itq1eq3 wrote

What kind of shit business do you do where you can't do a Zoom meeting?

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KadenKraw t1_itqm24n wrote

Seriously. Corporate culture is such wasteful crap. Flying a bunch of people for meetings that can be done remote. Unless its some big conference or something any discussion meeting can be done online.

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gm33 OP t1_itsrtid wrote

I was using short hand with meeting. Obviously the intention of my post is about the reliability of a so called draw to Worcester and using the airport here. The reasoning for why people travel is completely irrelevant. In fact most people here take it to JFK to travel internationally. If you live in the area it’s phenomenal.

If you must know, I work remotely and I had the opportunity to attend a company event in NYC to finally meet some of my coworkers in person. The event was a huge conference followed by a ball. Not the type of thing one Zooms into.

Figured this flight is perfect. Why waste money (you mentioned waste too) on a hotel for something that was not critical?

Yes, weather happens, but the percent cancellation of flights out of ORH is alarmingly high. And no one at JetBlue offered any alternative options which is also disappointing.

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Neil94403 t1_itr7dnu wrote

Its great to see regular service back at ORH. I am always careful to look at frequency and # days/week a flight operates. This helps calculate the “brittleness” of any given flight.

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Watchfull_Hosemaster t1_itsiu2a wrote

This is why we need a massive upgrade to our passenger rail system in the northeast. We shouldn't even need to fly between Massachusetts and New York. It's such a hassle to fly and if we consider the door to door time of flying (how long it takes from when you leave your home to getting to your meeting), you're probably not even saving much time compared to driving directly to NYC or driving to the Metro North line in New Haven and hopping on that.

A train trip from Union Station to Grand Central Station on a high speed rail would be far more efficient than a flight from the edge of Worcester to an airport on the south coast of Queens that still requires a decent amount of travel just to get into Manhattan.

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gm33 OP t1_itsq2ob wrote

Yes this. Not that it was fast but the direct Worcester to NYC Amtrak was removed 15 years ago. We are going backwards :(

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spanktravision t1_itpha86 wrote

I had a late flight from jfk to orh cancelled thanks to weather delays and ended up stuck in the terminal overnight. Never again will I fly from Worcester.

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slum_life_frownface t1_itpmhiv wrote

don't complain about the accessibility or usefulness of local transit if you don't want the local transit otakus to get on your ass. you're supposed to be thankful for the fact that floridians deign to visit our fair city.

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