[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by spitfire

Instead of welcoming the extra cargo business Austin Bergstrom Int. Airport has closed on Sunday's and made it harder the other 6 nights by re-directing Priority freight to the baggage claim after 22:00 p.m..

It is AA's cargo facility that is closed on Sunday, not the entire airport's cardo operations. I just wanted to clarify that (checked on AA.com) because you made it sound like no cargo was going in or out at all @AUS on Sunday.

It's odd how you cite the economy changing business conditions as it applies to your operation but when another company modifies it's business hours and operations because of the same economic pressures it's not okay because it inconveniences you! Do you havde sufficient knowledge of the volume of cargo AA accepted on a daily basis? Can you make a comparison between weekday business and Saturday and Sunday? No because you don't work for them. If your courier service only gets on average a dozen calls to ship something on a Sunday versus a hundred or more calls on a weekday are you going to staff the same number of people on a Sunday? I think not. The choice to close on Sunday was obviously a business decision and obviously because they did not have sufficient cargo volume to justify the expense of keeping the cargo receiving area staffed.

As for training the ticket counter agents, they probably received some basic training and your complaint is the speed at which they process your cargo and not they they are unable to do it at all. You can't expect a ticket counter agent who is primarily responsible for processing passengers to be as proficient as a cargo agent. The cargo agents process shipments all day every day and can probably do it in their sleep. I would think if they sent a cargo agent to work at the ticket counter one day a month he or she would be slower than the other agents as well.

Finally isn't there another airline out of AUS that you could utilize for your cargo needs on Sunday? Doesn't Southwest fly into AUS? Don't they have an extensive route network within Texas? Just a thought.

edit: Just checked and Southwest does indeed have a cargo counter @AUS and it's open Sundays from 7 AM - 10:30 PM.