First Impressions
By Stephen T. Banko
Roll up the sidewalks if you must, but keep the cabs at the airport rolling.
The debate about whether or not Buffalo is a dying city can be ended very quickly. Just fly into the Buffalo Niagara International Airport after midnight and see if you think Buffalo is dying or is already dead.
Flying anywhere these days is certain to involve delays, re-routes, and more headaches than a back alley mugging. Fly out of Chicago O’Hare and those problems are compounded.
I recently flew in from O’Hare and arrived in Buffalo at 1:20 a.m. instead of the 11:30 p.m. as scheduled. I stood with a couple hundred other weary travelers and waited for 30 minutes for our bags to make it to the carousel. That was not unusual.
Buffalo has the longest wait for bags of any airport I’ve been in. What was unusual was the line at the cab stand. Fourteen people were ahead of me. Some of them had kids. As we stood there, the line behind me got significantly longer as no cabs were anywhere in sight. When we inquired about the lack of vehicles, the starter said the drivers are allowed to go home after midnight. I asked if the drivers were allowed to go home despite knowing there were flights coming in after midnight. The kid said they knew but did we expect that they would stay at the airport all night?
Several out-of-towners asked if they could return to the terminal and call other cabs. I knew they weren’t from Buffalo because we all know that other cabs can drop you at the airport but they can’t pick up. Picking up passengers is a monopoly held exclusively by one company. So the choices facing travelers coming to Buffalo was to wait upwards of an hour for a driver or to call a competing cab and walk out to Genesee Street with their kids along a long driveway with dim lighting and no sidewalks to wait for a cab at 2 a.m.
So the answer to the starter’s question is a resounding “YES, I expect drivers to wait until the last flight is in and the passengers are taken care of.”
Otherwise, they are stranded on the airport grounds. There are no buses. There is no competing taxi service. There is literally no other way off the airport if the monopoly company drivers desert the airport.
And so it was in the wee hours of August 8. We were queued up for more than 30 minutes before my cab arrived. Behind me, the line of people waiting for cabs stretched from the cab stand all the way back to the second cross walk. Many of those waiting had small children and they had a very long wait ahead of them.
My travels have taken me to large cities and small cities. I’ve arrived early in the day and late at night. I’ve had to journey from some cities to obscure training locations far from the airports and I’ve never encountered the delays that have greeted me when I got home. And never have I seen the spectacle of 60 people waiting upwards of an hour for transportation off any airport site.
This is shabby treatment for residents returning home, particularly after long and trying experiences with airlines. It is scandalous treatment for visitors who get their first impressions of the region from their experience at the airport.
The price of monopoly must be service. If you have the exclusive right you have a corresponding obligation to provide transportation, regardless of what time. It’s time the NFTA commissioners did something to enforce that obligation.
Image: http://www.ci.buffalo.ny.us
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Comment Options
platt4
Four letters: N-F-T-A. State-blessed obstructionists.
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STEEL
Monopoly means less service in any business.
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mybuffalo
the airport wasn't expecting to have 5 million passangers until 2020 and had never ever expected 6 million passengers by almost 2008 that is the only excuse i can think of, other than that quit your bitching and have someone pick you up
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LivingForge
"have someone pick you up"
This is really the kind of thinking that creates a lack of cabs. Not everyone has someone in every city to pick them, but then again, your thinking seems to be based in the idea that no one travels to Buffalo unless they're an expat visiting family, or a resident returning from vacation. Keep thinking like that and you'll never attract, accommodate, or satisfy tourists, business travelers, conference attendees, etc.
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urbanbflolover
It would be fantastic if the NFTA would pursue federal funds to "finish" the metro - or at least build a line out to the airport. It could be above ground on an existing rail right of way that is already available.
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dagner
And what's with the baggage wait?
I traveled frequently on business last year and Buffalo was by far the slowest airport to get the bags to the carousel. In many airports the bags were rotating by the time we got to the device. Never in Buffalo. This was at busier and quieter airports, larger and smaller. Buffalo always took at least 30 minutes, whether many flights were coming in, or few.
The real question is what measures does the NFTA take of these services and how do we get access to that information?
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al-alo
as far as the bags go, it is possible thats its a staffing issue with the airline - not the airport.
it doesnt matter how much capacity the system has or how efficient it is capable of being if there are not enough baggage handlers. is this a result of airline cutbacks?
and of course the monopoly is a joke. but the central terminal had the same thing decades ago. the thing is, there were connecting buses (the 19 I think), connecting trains, other railways and other stations.
we all know the answer. almost every other airport is connected by rail transit. lets finally get this done.
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vgs
Opposite Experience: two weeks ago I flew in at about 2AM and was impressed at how efficient the cab service was. Plenty of people in line for a cab and atleast a dozen or more cabs lined up. Clean comfortable cars and great service. I thought to myself this is a really great impression for visitors.
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urbansoul
OMG - but it is so true - I GET MY BAGS FASTER AT LOGAN than I do here in Buffalo!!
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sbrof
The NFTA is right in the middle of reworking all of their baggage systems so some of that delay could have been from the interruption in service or lack of capacity to handle bag checks in a post 911 world. They do know that it is an issue and already are making accommodations to fix it.
As for the CABs I think the monopoly policy is stupid.. cut it and let companies compete but maybe they keep a monopoly so they can require a certain level of service.. Maybe they just don't require enough.
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dagner
The statue of limitations has run out on using 9-11 as an excuse for bad service. The seventh anniversary of that event is next month.
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Texpat10
Baggage handlers are airline and not NFTA employees. Given union rules it is possible that some may have already been released by the time that your flight got in. The reworked baggage handling system is for screening outgoing luggage and not incoming. Buffalo's baggage service can be bad but I've seen equally as bad in other cities. My biggest beef is that it seems like no matter how many flights come in there is a tendency to use just one belt for all bags creating chaos.
Rail service would be nice but it probably wouldn't run at 0200 and it wouldn't help anyone other than those living or staying on the rail line. Requiring a minimum number of cabs until all arriving flights have come in is the only way to address this problem.
For what it is worth I have had the same cab issue in Chicago and New York. Be thankful it wasn't 15 below like the night when I waited for a cab for an hour outside O'Hare.
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sbrof
A rail line would connect to all the downtown hotels though which would be the most important. Odds are if you are coming to town, without someone there to pick you up, you are going to a hotel and not a home. Sure some cabs will always be needed but you need to get people to rooms as easy as possible.
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peripatetic
Banko; What's HUD doing about the waste of taxpayer money for the proposed new BMHA housing plan for 47 East Amherst Street?
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wizardofza
Having rail access would be awesome but keep in mind that would only be convenient for traverlers headed downtown or somewhere else deep in the city. I would wager that the majority of airline paseengers flying home into BUF will be headed for one of the many sprawly burbs after landing. This is why having good cab service is so crucial.
On the oither hand, airline travel may soon no longer be a means of affordable travel for the masses. Jet planes consume unfathomable quanities of fuel. As gas prices keep steadily rising (no, that little blip of crude oil price dipping doesn't mean we're headed for the good ol' days of cheap gas again) the big air carriers will no lpnger be able to eat the massive losses incurred by higher fuel prices and inevitablly will be forced to pass those costs off to consumers. Just how many Joe and Jane Sixpacks can afford a $2000 flight on top of wonton credit card and mortgage debt and stagnant wages?
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AvaRouge
Lethargic baggage- an effort to drag things out to eat up that free half hour (?) of parking perhaps?
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vivian
Just a thought... If you were at the airport , in a city you were not familiar with, would you want to get into just any old cab that bopped in at 2:00 AM..
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doc
What is the airport doing about this problem? Has anyone inquired? Mr. Banko, you end yuour article with the statement "It’s time the NFTA commissioners did something to enforce that obligation." Have you contacted the NFTA?
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NorPark
re:Avarouge There is no more free half hour of parking.
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allfit
I have traveled all over this country and in several cities around the globe and I can honestly say that the service at Buffalo Niagara is good to excellent during normal hours. The after-hours support is minimal, having landed at BNIA at 2:00 AM one morning on a delayed JetBlue flight, we waited 40 minutes for our luggage. I inquired to the one airport representative about the delay and she stated that there is only 1 baggage handled on duty after 1:00 AM. JetBlue was supposed to provide additional staff; however they did not make it to the baggage center.
Taxis and mass transit are a problem in every city if you arrive after hours. I waited over 40 minutes for a cab at Dulles just 2 weeks ago, and that was during normal business hours. The person running the taxi stand said that there are fewer cabs running due to the price of gas and the increase in tax that MWAA put on cab licenses, so passengers have to wait. Dulles also restricts taxi services to one company and does not have a train to the airport despite two decades of discussion on the subject.
I like Midway, Reagan, and Philadelphia because they have convenient train service, but I have had to wait 20 - 30 minutes for trains at each of these airports. I waited for 25 minutes on the Philly train just two weeks ago because I just missed the previous train. The A/C was not operating well, so passengers had to sit in the heat and humidity until the train started. It definitely wasn't pleasant. BTW, we waited 25 minutes for our bags at the baggage claim during normal business hours.
I am not excusing the NFTA for the poor service and lack of communication regarding delayed flights. I do know that the challenges mentioned in this article are not limited to the NFTA, they are a problem at every airport in the country.
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madrid550
Go to any airport at 2am.....Ive lived in chicago, 2am at o'hare aint pretty my friend. Guess why you were delayed...probably becuase they went down to 1 or 2 runways at o'hare. But who really is interested in the root cause these days??
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bflorox
@NorPark
There is no more free 1/2 hour parking in the short-term lot. There IS free 1 hour parking in any long-term lot.
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ruserious
Taken from www.buffaloairport.com
"Preferred long-term parking is within walking distance of the terminal and perfect for daily or long weekend trips. Free shuttles run to and from the terminal. Parking for two hours or less is free; 2-3 hours is $4, with each additional hour $1, daily maximum $12, weekly maximum $72 (tax included.)"
The baggage situation is due to the circumstances of the massive growth in passengers. The new baggage system and building will debut in the fall, and should eliminate the excessive wait for baggage (it is important as already noted that baggage is an airlines responsibility, and any excessive delays in not the NFTA or the airports fault).
The cab situation is unfortunate, but Buffalo is not a taxi city such as Boston, Chicago, NYC, Toronto, etc. There are times when I have seen 20 cabs waiting. It's simply hard to gauge when. The point of the monopoly system set up years ago was to ensure proper service. The cabs that pick up from the airport have professional drivers in uniform, clean and more up-to-date cabs. This was to have a good first impression for our out of town visitors. It's unfortunate that late at night a poor impression was made.
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Pineapplesun
My husband and I travel quite often and it is true that Buffalo has the slowest baggage handlers. We have never had such bad experiences at any other airport. The thing we can't figure out is why it takes 20 minutes even for them to decide which of the 3 belts they will put the luggage on. Everytime we are waiting by one luggage belt (along with the rest of the plane's passengers) they invariably put the name of the flight up by one of the other luggage belts and everyone jockeys for postion like a bunch of lunatics. How is it that the airport employees or airline employees don't know that a flight is coming in and therefore the people on the flight will need A.) their luggage and B.) a way to leave the airport. It's disappointing and poor service. And yes, it makes our city look stupid too.
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flyguy
I absolutely agree. After having traveled through JFK, DFW, Dulles, Detroit, BWI, etc. its almost embarrassing the services once you get off the plane and down to baggage and mass transit in Buffalo. There are major airports with far more baggage carousels that deliver the baggage much more effectively to travelers. I've been in that Buffalo airport when carousels are off line and baggage has been sent through and backed up on the conveyor to the point where the baggage was falling off the carousel and no one was there from the airport to fix the problem or pick up the bags. INstead the conveyor was turned off and the baggage was left all backed up on the conveyor or on the floor where it fell. The Buffalo airport haS A WHOLE 3 CAROUSELS and these types of incidents are comical considering the scale of the airport in relation to the big boys out there with 10, 15, or more carousels. I dont know why it isnt clear sometimes what carousel my baggage will arrive either. My experiences at the Buffalo airport are generally alright but the place certainly doesnt seem "big city" or like an international airport. Services there seem backwoods small town to me at best and for a region of its size i would expect more. The Albany Airport feels more big city than Buffalo does. Since the airport has experienced so much popularity since opening I suggest expanding the services and professionalism to meet that.
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davvid
I don't understand how this experience of Stephen T. Banko is evidence of any kind of systemic flaw at the airport. Its sensible to think that monopolies generally lead to a bad deal for the public--but because Mr. Banco's experience happened once and at 1-2am in a small airport, it doesn't seem to support his conclusion.
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ruserious
I do agree with that statement... often the minority makes the loudest statement... however, it still left a bad impression. One that is realistically unavoidable though at such a late hour.
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buffaloweiner
The NFTA has committed to rehiring their consulting firm this fall (hopefully already did) to update their original cost justifications on extending the light rail.
Remember that since the original study:
gas has shot up to $5 a gallon during some peaks
the larkin district and the central terminal and the galleria and lancaster and the airport either didnt exist or have all undergone major restorations, renovations and/or expansions
the Seneca Niagara Casino didnt exist
the Buffalo Casino, Erie Canal Wharf, Lakeside Commerce Industrial Park and the Port of NY/NJ didnt exist either
there was no announcement of major expansions to the Amherst Campus and the Life Sciences Center downtown campus didnt exist either.
Extending the light rail would pump hundreds of millions of federal dollars and state dollars (as rare as they might be) into Buffalo and Western NY.....money we desperately need.
(Lastly, google a satellite map of Buffalo and trace the old BELTWAY and you will find significant growth along that former trolly corridor....possibly enough to justify its reactivation....imagine what that would do for Buffalo State, Pearce Arrow Complex, ECMC, American Axle, Contract Pharmaceuticals, Richs, D'Youville, etc etc etc)
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DrZacko
This is unacceptable - really - if Buffalo expects (hopes) to boost tourism and become someplace people want to live again. I'm a new resident and my partner and I have been impressed with the city and it's people so far, but given that we both fly back and forth to the West Coast regularly and travel often to other places, this sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen -- especially as I was hoping to not have to add another car to the streets and highways. Seattle (where I'm from) has a bounty of cabs to and from the airport, great and reliable bus service and, starting in 2009, brand new light rail from downtown to the airport. I realize Seattle is a bigger (and richer) city, but the least Buffalo could do is make cab access easy -- and/or run some busses!
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CKBuffalo
Being a former JetBlue supervisor and Delta trainer, I can tell you that the airlines are responsible for the delays getting the bags to the carousel. The baggage handlers are supposed to load a maximum of two baggage carts from the plane then bring them to the carousel withing 5 minutes of when the plane landed, then unload the rest of the plane in the remaining baggage carts, constantly repeating this process. This takes one or two people off unloading the plane, but allows for a continuous delivery to the carousel. Since cutbacks, airlines can no longer afford to lose those employees when unloading the plane. Until things improve in the airlines, this is something you have to deal with.
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Texpat10
Dr. Zacko, I spent an hour, yes really I am not exagerating, last month at Seatac waiting for my bags. I gave up, went and rented my car, came back and they still weren't out. I don't think slow baggage is a Buffalo problem; it is a result, as CK says, of airline cutbacks.
Comparing the transit options in Buffalo and Seattle isn't really fair. Expecting a boatload of cabs in Buffalo at 0200 is probably a little unrealistic. Still, given that the cab company has a monopoly, it sure would be nice if they were forced to have at least a minimum level of service until the last flight arrives.
I'll add that after I finally got my bags I spent over an hour stuck in stop and go traffic (saturday around noon) on I-5 making my way the 15 miles downtown. At least Buffalo doesn't have that problem. All total my two hours at noon on a saturday probably took more time than it took these people to get where they were going at 0200.
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