I know I’ve written about this subject before. But if it’s a regular annoyance for me, I’m sure it is even more so for travelers with tight connections.
I usually know enough not to plan for tight connections because in these days of sky-high load factors, if you miss your flight you may not be able to just get on the next one. So it’s usually better to plan to wait an extra hour or two for a connecting flight than end up spending a lot longer – or even sometimes an overnight – if you miss your connection.
So while I plan for delays as much as possible, passengers who don’t are usually incredibly stressed in the aircraft waiting for the jetway to arrive and the door to open so they can make their mad dash to their next flight. You don’t want to be between them and the door when it opens.
This isn’t a problem that’s limited to small airports or large airports. Nor is it apparently a problem limited to the United States. Recently I was connecting through Europe and at every stop the lag time between arrival and the jetway hooking up made me feel right at home. Which is not a good thing.
From my experience, the problem arises from a lack of jetway operators. But it would seem to me that any money saved from under-staffing is more than made up for by the additional fuel burn as the aircraft sits waiting and also the costs of re-routing passengers who miss their connections.
