Always late...
Whether you've flown on domestic or transatlantic flights, big or small aircraft, jet or propeller engined, your flight has been late! It's funny, when I started working as an airline pilot, I expected friends to ask me about aerodynamics or whatever technical things they wondered about while flying as passengers. But the most popular question is "Why are you guys always late?".
Why indeed...
There's a lot more going on around a simple flight than most people think. There's a million reasons for a flight to be delayed. It might sound funny to you but, talking about medium-haul, the main reason for a flight to be late is that the previous flight was late! That might've sounded confusing but let me just tell you that, if you're getting on an evening flight, that aircraft has probably flown about 7 or 8 legs already. Now, because time is money, the scheduling doesn't allow for that much time on the ground between flights. If the plane is on the ground, it's not making money! So, if one flight gets delayed, there's a fair chance all the following flights on that aircraft that day will be late. Official reason for delay: "late arrival of incoming aircraft". You've probably heard that one before...
But let's see, why would that initial delay happen in the first place. As I said before, the whole process of getting an airplane down on the ground and ready to get back in the air is quite complex. First of all, it involves ATC (Air Traffic Control) allowing us to approach the airport and land. Sometimes, because there's too much traffic arriving to that same airport, we have to circle around and wait for our turn to shoot the approach. The so called holding. Then, after we've managed to land and get to the gate, the rush beggins for the ground staff. All the luggage has to be offloaded and directed to the right area of the terminal, luggage from the new passengers has to be loaded, fuel truck must fill up our tanks, the cabin and lavatories have to be cleaned up, catering truck quickly refills the stock, etc etc...
Don't think that, while all that is going on, the pilots are having a coffee and reading the newspaper. We're not. The next flight has to be prepared. All the info has to be loaded into the aircraft's Flight Management Computers (route, weights, speeds, fuel details, expected winds, etc). While one of the pilots is doing this, the other one will do the external check of the aircraft and make sure everything's OK on the outside. Once all that is done, it's time for the departure briefing and we're ready to go! The problem is, most of the times, no one else is! The passengers are still boarding the aircraft, the fuel truck isn't finished with the refueling and the ground staff hasn't finished loading all the luggage and cargo. And, you know what? It's rarely their own fault! The passengers are still boarding because there weren't enough buses available to drive them to the airplane, the fuel guy did everything as quick as he could but he had to refuel other aircraft first and started late with us, the ground crew is still loading the luggage because the company simply doesn't have enough staff and things go slow... etc, etc!
So now we finally have all the passengers seated, their luggage in the cargo holds and full tanks. We're on our way!!!... Actually, not just yet. We still need our ATC clearance. And, just as with the arrival, we might get a delay. There can only be so many aircraft in the air and in the same area at one specific time. If any point on our route is already saturated at the time we're supposed to be there, we'll get an ATC delay. Which actually happens quite often in busy areas such as England or Central Europe, for example. They will give us a new time for our departure, the so called ATC Slot. These delays can be of 10, 20, 30, 60 minutes... whatever ATC needs to get their airspace saturation problems solved.
Right, so now our slot time is coming up and we are about to push-back and start the engines. All of a sudden we get a call from the cabin. The purser has bad news. A passenger is getting anxious and decided he doesn't want to fly today. Now his luggage has to be found in the cargo holds and taken out of the aircraft, and everyone has to de-board the aircraft and take their hand luggage with them. This is to make sure this anxious passenger doesn't leave any "unfriendly" packages behind him on the overhead bins. If they are all empty after everyone's out, we're safe and everyone can board again... Of course, now we've lost some 30 minutes and will not be able to make it into the air during the original time slot ATC gave us. And, just as with the initial ATC slot, our new one can be in 10... or 50 minutes... who knows!
So, as you can tell, a lot is going on during a turnaround. All you need is one of these things to go wrong and we have a delay. Now, if it happens in two consecutive turnarounds of the same aircraft, God knows how much delay you can expected on your flight at the end of the day. Next time the crew apologizes for the delay, please, be nice. They want to get home just as much as you and probably have no responsibility whatsoever for the delay.
(Photo courtesy of Ismael Jorda)
Smooth landings,
Pilot Flying.
Why indeed...
There's a lot more going on around a simple flight than most people think. There's a million reasons for a flight to be delayed. It might sound funny to you but, talking about medium-haul, the main reason for a flight to be late is that the previous flight was late! That might've sounded confusing but let me just tell you that, if you're getting on an evening flight, that aircraft has probably flown about 7 or 8 legs already. Now, because time is money, the scheduling doesn't allow for that much time on the ground between flights. If the plane is on the ground, it's not making money! So, if one flight gets delayed, there's a fair chance all the following flights on that aircraft that day will be late. Official reason for delay: "late arrival of incoming aircraft". You've probably heard that one before...
But let's see, why would that initial delay happen in the first place. As I said before, the whole process of getting an airplane down on the ground and ready to get back in the air is quite complex. First of all, it involves ATC (Air Traffic Control) allowing us to approach the airport and land. Sometimes, because there's too much traffic arriving to that same airport, we have to circle around and wait for our turn to shoot the approach. The so called holding. Then, after we've managed to land and get to the gate, the rush beggins for the ground staff. All the luggage has to be offloaded and directed to the right area of the terminal, luggage from the new passengers has to be loaded, fuel truck must fill up our tanks, the cabin and lavatories have to be cleaned up, catering truck quickly refills the stock, etc etc...
Don't think that, while all that is going on, the pilots are having a coffee and reading the newspaper. We're not. The next flight has to be prepared. All the info has to be loaded into the aircraft's Flight Management Computers (route, weights, speeds, fuel details, expected winds, etc). While one of the pilots is doing this, the other one will do the external check of the aircraft and make sure everything's OK on the outside. Once all that is done, it's time for the departure briefing and we're ready to go! The problem is, most of the times, no one else is! The passengers are still boarding the aircraft, the fuel truck isn't finished with the refueling and the ground staff hasn't finished loading all the luggage and cargo. And, you know what? It's rarely their own fault! The passengers are still boarding because there weren't enough buses available to drive them to the airplane, the fuel guy did everything as quick as he could but he had to refuel other aircraft first and started late with us, the ground crew is still loading the luggage because the company simply doesn't have enough staff and things go slow... etc, etc!
So now we finally have all the passengers seated, their luggage in the cargo holds and full tanks. We're on our way!!!... Actually, not just yet. We still need our ATC clearance. And, just as with the arrival, we might get a delay. There can only be so many aircraft in the air and in the same area at one specific time. If any point on our route is already saturated at the time we're supposed to be there, we'll get an ATC delay. Which actually happens quite often in busy areas such as England or Central Europe, for example. They will give us a new time for our departure, the so called ATC Slot. These delays can be of 10, 20, 30, 60 minutes... whatever ATC needs to get their airspace saturation problems solved.
Right, so now our slot time is coming up and we are about to push-back and start the engines. All of a sudden we get a call from the cabin. The purser has bad news. A passenger is getting anxious and decided he doesn't want to fly today. Now his luggage has to be found in the cargo holds and taken out of the aircraft, and everyone has to de-board the aircraft and take their hand luggage with them. This is to make sure this anxious passenger doesn't leave any "unfriendly" packages behind him on the overhead bins. If they are all empty after everyone's out, we're safe and everyone can board again... Of course, now we've lost some 30 minutes and will not be able to make it into the air during the original time slot ATC gave us. And, just as with the initial ATC slot, our new one can be in 10... or 50 minutes... who knows!
So, as you can tell, a lot is going on during a turnaround. All you need is one of these things to go wrong and we have a delay. Now, if it happens in two consecutive turnarounds of the same aircraft, God knows how much delay you can expected on your flight at the end of the day. Next time the crew apologizes for the delay, please, be nice. They want to get home just as much as you and probably have no responsibility whatsoever for the delay.
(Photo courtesy of Ismael Jorda)
Smooth landings,
Pilot Flying.
posted by Pilot Flying at
12:18 PM
2 Comments:
You're right, there can be many reasons excusing a delay. But, as a passenger, I can assure you that we also can have many reasons to be unsatisfied. The biggest and frequent is lack of information. We don't know why we're late and people like to have something or someone to blaim. Passengers may be in risk of loosing flight connections, be hungry, tired, sleepy, (drunk), missing home and friends, have had a bad day, etc etc.
Personally, I always apreciate if the captain talks to the passengers and explain the delay. Even if it wasn't their fault.
And give the coordinates to the flight, expected turbulence, hours of flight, predicted time of arrival, temperature, hours.
And if departing/arriving from/to Lisbon, always expect applauses... They express appreciation!
JM
By
JoanaM, at 3:56 PM
Thank you for your comment at my blog. I have become much more friendly to crews, etc. since I started to learn how to fly and of course since I started to know more about airline pilots. As you said to me, keep writing. And fly safely. Ciao!
By
Jane, at 9:18 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home