Wow!!! Look at this C-5 Galaxy that stopped by Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport last month. This aircraft is part of the U.S. Air Force 433rd Airlift Wing in San Antonio. It arrived at Phoenix Sky Harbor to pick up and transport Apache Helicopters.
Photo courtesy Jeff Wainscott.
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport will host the final job fair of 2022 on Tuesday, Dec. 6. However, we are excited to announce jobs fairs will continue in the new year with job fairs scheduled through February.
The next PHX Job Fair will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 6. The event takes place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the 44th Street PHX Sky Train® Station located at 44th and Washington streets.
The station is easily accessible by bus and Valley Metro Rail and transit pass will be offered to attendees. Parking is also available.
No preregistration is required to attend the event. Hundreds of available positions are looking to be filled including customer service agents, drivers, sales associates, and security.
The job fair has government positions with the City of Phoenix Aviation Department and the TSA, in addition to jobs with vendors that run the dining and shopping inside the airport. People also looking for opportunities with the airlines will find open positions at the upcoming job fairs.
To learn more and to see positions being recruited by the airport and their partners, visit skyharbor.com/jobs.
As America’s Friendliest Airport®, we love our employees. And, we want to thank them for the great work they do. Have you experienced exceptional customer service? Tell us so we can recognize that employee.
Email us details and be sure to check our social media sites every Friday when we feature one of our outstanding employees who has received an On-the-FLY Award.
Feb. 13, the day after the Big Game, will likely be the busiest day of the year for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Looking back to 2015, Sky Harbor broke a single day record for the number of passengers traveling through the airport the day after the Super Bowl. That day approximately 175,000 passengers were on planes that accounted for 1,500 takeoffs and landings.
We are anticipating in 2023, to see more than 180,000 passengers the day after Big Game with similar numbers to 2015 for takeoffs and landings.
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is well prepared to welcome visitors for major events. This is the fourth time that Arizona has hosted the Super Bowl. Additionally, each year, our staff prepares and welcomes travelers to major events such as the Phoenix Open, Spring Training and more. The airport works closely with our airport partners to ensure they are appropriately staffed to accommodate our passenger numbers. We continue to hold monthly job fairs so that our airport partners can recruit and fill any open positions they have.
We also have a great group of Navigator Volunteers and our Customer Service team is working with the Super Bowl Host Committee, so volunteers are on-site and ready to help passengers.
Be sure to visit skyharbor.com/superbowlfor the latest news, information, and travel tips, and stay tuned to future issues of PHX Check-In for a more in-depth look at our planning initiatives.
Congratulations to Chief Revenue Officer Roxann Favors for winning the 2022 Inspirational Events Executive Award from the Women in Sports and Events.
Phoenix Sky Harbor is the recipient of the National Recycling Coalition’s 2022 Outstanding Outreach Program through its recycling program efforts.
The Outstanding Outreach Program is awarded to public, nonprofit or other entities showing leadership, creativity, quality, and success in diversion outreach. Way to go!
We are flying high from the news of Engineering News-Record recognizing the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Terminal 4 Eighth Concourse as the Best Airport/Transit Project in the Southwest region! ENR Southwest’s 2022 Best Projects competition drew 48 entries from across the three-state region of Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.
Happy anniversary to Phoenix Goodyear Airport! The airport is the result of a long history of community development, aircraft manufacturing and military service. It was purchased by the city of Phoenix in 1968 and today is a vital general aviation hub for Phoenix’s West Valley.
Goodyear has its roots with a cotton ranch started in 1917. Because of World War I, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company could not get long-staple cotton from Egypt for making their pneumatic tires. Phoenix’s West Valley proved to have the perfect cotton growing conditions.
World War II brought the need for massive production of military aircraft components and a plant was built at the cotton ranch. In 1943, the U.S. Navy ordered a portion of the Goodyear-Arizona plant to be utilized for aircraft modification. An area adjoining the plant was established as the U.S. Naval Air Facility to modify planes, test aircraft and deliver them as needed. The Navy constructed a landing field, a very large hangar, and 6,000-foot runway. The War ended and the Naval Air Facility was given the task of “pickling” or preserving and storing aircraft. By 1950, about 2,500 planes had been “pickled” at Goodyear.
In the 1960s, the City of Phoenix began searching for satellite airport sites to help relieve the volume of small aircraft using Phoenix Sky Harbor. The Naval Air Facility was put on surplus and the City bought it. Many names for the new airport were considered including Sky Haven, Hassayampa, White Tanks, West Phoenix, Tri-City and Goodlitch. The Phoenix City Council approved the name Phoenix-Litchfield Municipal Airport, but the city changed the name in 1986 to Phoenix Goodyear Airport.
For many years, a visit to the Goodyear airport was like a trip in a time capsule with facilities built in the 1940s. The old terminal was demolished in 1999 and on March 10, 2000, a new terminal was dedicated.
Today, the airport provides critical service to corporate and private pilots who come to the Valley of the Sun for major sporting events such as NASCAR and the Super Bowl. And earlier this year, it became home to the United Aviate Academy, training future airline pilots for United.
Over the last 20 years, more than 1,600 people have served as Sky Harbor Navigator volunteers. Some have been here since the very beginning and some for less than a year.
The Navigators debuted in 2000 after studying customer service initiatives at other airports. Volunteers show up for duty day and night, every day of the week and are briefed on any changes around the airport and assigned a station to provide travelers with advice, support and directions.
Volunteers supplement airport ambassadors, who are paid workers stationed at information desks. Some Navigators have volunteered more than 10,000 hours.
Regardless of the length of service, that dedication of volunteerism is inspiring to all who meet them and especially to those who work alongside them. Not many airport programs have the privilege of knowing so many incredible volunteers.
Whether it was helping someone find a gate, find a lost loved one, find a place to eat, or anything in between, Navigators have made a difference to countless customers over the years.
November marks the start of a string of new air service and destinations coming to Phoenix.
On Nov. 19, Breeze Airways begins flights from Phoenix to Provo, Utah and Charleston, South Carolina. Next year, Breeze will begin nonstop service between Phoenix and Hartford, Connecticut; Richmond, Virgina; and Bentonville-Fayetteville, Arkansas, as well as one-stop/no plane change "BreezeThru" flights to New Orleans.
Also in early November, Spirit Airlines began daily nonstop service between Phoenix and Fort Lauderdale and the barbeque capital of the U.S., Kansas City.
America’s Friendliest Airport® adds additional international air service to Mexico beginning in the new year. American Airlines will begin daily, nonstop service from Phoenix to Monterrey, Mexico on Jan. 10, 2023.
Lynx Air, an ultra low-cost Canadian start-up carrier based in Calgary, has announced nonstop service to Phoenix. The Phoenix-Calgary nonstop flight will run three times weekly beginning Feb. 7, 2023.
Phoenix Sky Harbor and Frontier Airlines celebrated the opening of a new crew base at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Friday, Nov. 4. The base will initially employ up to 180 pilots and 275 flight attendants within its first year of operation. Combined with airport-based positions, the airline is expected to contribute more than $118 million in annual wages to the Phoenix-area economy.
Five new nonstop PHX routes also began on Saturday, Nov. 5. Frontier will serve Philadelphia, Fort Lauderdale, Detroit and Orange County, California daily from Phoenix, and serve Cincinnati four times each week.
Sky Harbor is on-track to be the first airport in world to offer Waymo rider-only autonomous vehicle service
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, America’s Friendliest Airport®, recently set a global milestone to becoming the first airport in the world to offer travelers the ability to take a Waymo autonomous vehicle as a means of transportation to and from the airport. On Nov. 1, Waymo began offering Trusted Tester participants the ability to take autonomous rides to and from downtown Phoenix and the Airport with an autonomous specialist in the vehicle.
Trusted Testers are able to catch a ride 24 hours seven days a week in Waymo’s fully electric Jaguar I-PACE equipped with the fifth generation Waymo Driver. Current trips are offered with an autonomous specialist in the driver’s seat. In the future, the specialist will be removed from the vehicle and the ability to hail rides will begin to open to the general public.
Pickups and drop-offs occur at the 44th Street PHX Sky Train® Station where travelers can hop on the free PHX Sky Train® direct to the terminals. Trains arrive and depart every few minutes.
The next two months during the holiday travel season, travelers will encounter the holiday crowds even before stepping into the airport.
The time period between Thanksgiving and early January is one of the busiest times of the year, not just in the skies but on roads around the airport.
As we approach the holiday season, America’s Friendliest Airport® is planning to show gratitude for our customers. From Dec. 5-16, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport will be hosting the 12 Days of Gratitude. Over the course of the 12 days, customers will find a variety of activities taking place in the terminals at different times of the day. Activities include a prize wheel, art scavenger hunt, photos with our mascot Amelia the Airplane, a Museum coloring activity for children, airport staff handing out special chocolate coins and thank you cards, photos with our Navigator Buddies, and more.
Air travel can be stressful for even the most experienced of travelers with the large crowds, lines, loud noises and security procedures. Traveling with kids adds even more stress to the mix and now imagine if that child has autism.