THE PROBLEM WITH NEWARK

Well, we finally made it to Phoenix (PHX) last night, 7 hours and 37 minutes after we closed the passenger door. We sat, and sat, and sat, and sat some more. Our passengers were incredibly understanding as we endured what seemed like endless delays. Summer isn't even here and the delays are already out of control. The sad thing was that THEIR WAS NO WEATHER to cause the delays!!! The controllers kept saying it was due to "traffic saturation"......even at midnight??? I don't think so. All I know is that this is costing the airlines an absolute FORTUNE!!! Several pilots asked the air traffic controllers what number they were for takeoff so they could judge when to start their engines (jet fuel being around $4.15 a gallon gets VERY EXPENSIVE when you're burning three gallons a minute for a small B737 at idle thrust!!! Now take a B777 or B747 and see how much THAT would cost!), and the comments that were coming from the controllers were not called for to say the least. One controller said he "didn't have time for that nonsense", another told the pilots that "he didn't do their job, so don't tell him how to do his", another said "it's your airlines credit card so don't worry about it" (a credit card that ALL airline employees are paying for unfortunately), another said to just "shut up and we'll call you in an hour"........................ What the controllers are failing to see is that this is literally helping to bankrupt the airlines, and WILL cost many of us our jobs. Interesting how their is so much "traffic saturation" at 11:00 at night when there never was before. All I know is that it's going to be a LONG, LONG summer unless things change. Maybe giving back the controllers some of the pay and benefits that were taken away from them might help................... Is anyone in Washington, DC, listening? You'd better be because your whole airline infrastructure is about to collapse, and then you won't have the airlines to blame it on. Sad thing though is that this ISN'T the airlines fault, but we sure seem to get blamed for it.

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