Savannah airport needs better service

I returned home from Chicago on Saturday, July 1, on a flight that arrived at the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport on schedule around midnight.

We had to wait on the runway while, according to the pilot, they “searched for someone from operations” to connect the gangplank to the aircraft so we could get off. That process took about 20 minutes.

I made my way to baggage claim where everyone from the flight waited for at least 45 minutes before the bags slowly started to come off.

I looked around at all the weary travelers, most being tourists and many with small children, and thought to myself that this is a horrible first impression of our area. We try so hard to get people to use our airport to travel to our beautiful destination and then give them a negative experience because of poor customer service.

This was a regularly scheduled flight on a major carrier. Why was the airport not prepared with personnel to timely get the passengers and their bags off to their destination?

While awaiting the bags I chatted with a limo transport person who told me that this is “business as usual” at our airport, especially at night. Had I been one of those weary tourists starting off on vacation, it would definitely be my final visit.

This story was originally published July 16, 2017 at 8:20 AM with the headline "Savannah airport needs better service."