Things in the Sky

Yesterday, I posted my flight reviews, and you can find those here. Today’s post is about my tour of PHL, which was just awesome.

After waiting in the club for a few minutes, Rhett Workman (head of Corporate Real Estate for Philadelphia and the international stations), who arranged everything, came to greet me. The first thing he did was get me listed on the earlier flight back to Providence with better seat availability, and then we headed into the executive offices, which actually used to be part of the US Airways Club.

A330 model in the offices.

Soon after we entered, Rhett was already introducing me to his co-workers, and needless to say I was a bit nervous to be meeting high-level executives. Hopefully I made a good impression! Afterwards, Rhett brought me to his office and after talking a bit, he gave me a copy of the PHL Master Plan and talked me through it, which I found really interesting.

Rhett then took me to meet the rest of his department, and he introduced me to Bruce Miller, Manager of Philadelphia Properties and Facilities, who was going to take me around a bit so I could learn more about his job. I really enjoyed this as I was able to see part of the terminal that most people never see, like the baggage system and the crew lounge.

Bruce was very kind to introduce me to an incredible amount of people along the way. I even met the domestic chief pilot!

Along the way, I talked with Ruben Arroyo, who is a Project Manager in the IT department, but is in the same office as Corporate Real Estate since the two departments are always working together. He came to US Airways from another industry, and I asked him what the transition was like. He said that a lot of the IT stuff is the same in every industry, but in the airline industry you see the results of your work fairly quickly, and it’s also different when a company like an airline is running 24/7.

After a great with Bruce and Ruben, it was time to head back to the office, but on the way I got this great view of the ramp.

Once I got back, Joan McAleer (she worked for US in many capacities over the years, and now works for the firm Burns & McDonnel but maintains an office at US Airways because of all the work they do) took me to the front of Terminal B where there was a meeting about improving the current curbside check-in system, and it was just cool to see all the attendees come to a solution very quickly.

I walked back to the office from the meeting with Ruben and Patrick Fallon, who is the Facilities Manager.  Fortunately, the security line at the terminal was very fast.  Then, Joan took me to Rhett’s office, and we were able to talk for awhile. I really enjoyed that because she has had many different positions in the airline industry.

Rhett came back from a meeting and then it was time for the most exciting part of the day – the tower tour! That was certainly something that I wasn’t expecting to do. Rhett first took me to meet Ken Levin, who is the ATC and Airfield Manger for PHL. Ken has one of the coolest offices I’ve ever seen. If I had this view, I would never get any work done!

Ken and I talked for awhile about operations at PHL and the various runway configurations they use, and the efficiency of each. I’m sure that if there was time, I could have talked to him for a few hours!

Next it was up to the tower. US Airways operates two of these at PHL to coordinate ramp operations. Take a look at that picture above (also taken from Ken’s office). Basically, when an aircraft gets onto that asphalt taxiway, the FAA tower is responsible for it. All of the concrete in front of that is taken care of by US Airways. I learned that a setup like this is traditional for most hub airports.

View from the tower – awesome!

After a great tour, I went to lunch with Rhett, Patrick, and Joe (also from Rhett’s team), and we had a nice discussion about things affecting the airline industry and US Airways.

Once lunch was over, it was time to head back. Rhett had to get to a meeting, so I thanked him for a great day and bid him farewell, and he was nice enough to let me wait in the US Airways Club until it was time to grab my flight.

What a great day! I can’t say I had specific expectation, but a tower tour was a total surprise. I would like to warmly thank Rhett and his co-workers for being so hospitable and giving up so much time of their busy day. This was an incredible experience, and I learned a great deal!