Wilmington, NC - Beating the Odds into a Mid Sized Market

This was my second trip to ILM in six months.  The number of flights reflects the size of the market, and that means total dependence on third party regional airlines into and out of ILM.

And as you can tell by many of my older posts, I don't like them at all.

The segments from TPA to ILM were good enough.  We were 30 minutes late out of TPA due to storms near ATL, which caused a flow control delay.  The Delta MD88 to ILM was 45 minutes late.  I guess I have to give them a pass on this segment.

I was surprised that DL flies any metal into ILM.  In this case, it's their only branded trip.

The work finished early in ILM on Friday and since I suspected this on Thursday, I called DL about standby for earlier segments on Friday.

How can something so simple get so complicated.  During the days of their "same day confirmed" product, this was an easy, stress free thing.

Not now.

I explained to the agent on the Diamond line that I had flown for 40 years and simply did not understand the procedure for standby anymore.  And after listening to a 3 minute explanation, I still wasn't sure.

So I show up at ILM and am told I am on the list.

And I did clear.  The CRJ2 was not full.

Due to a slightly late departure I had to hustle to get to the next standby segment in ATL for Tampa.

And I made that one also.  But I had to check my bag since I was the last pax to board.

Stand by worked this time.  I'm sure status helped.  But I simply don't understand how standby flying got so complicated.

Chicago is next.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2372/history/20140608/2020Z/KTPA/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1395/history/20140608/2305Z/KATL/KILM

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASQ4970/history/20140613/1757Z/KILM/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL950/history/20140613/2012Z/KATL/KTPA