How do airports handle flight delays and cancellations?
It happened twice to two people i knew. My friend was going from San Francisco to Manila and when she was in the airport, her 9am flight got delayed by two hours and when it was 10:30, they delayed it again. The flight was delayed again and again whenever it was near the scheduled time. When it was 7pm and her flight was changed to 8pm, it was cancelled. She waited hours for nothing! I'm thinking that the airport should cancel a flight once it'd delayed four hours over its original time.
Well that's where Europe is much better than the US.
We have rules about that sort of thing that include financial compensation, putting you up in a hotel and giving you another flight.
Unfortunately you don't have that in America.
It's usually not up to the airport (unless there's an airport-specific issue, such as runway damage or debris, or weather), but rather the airline. And the airline works very hard to try getting every flight out - when a flight is canceled, the airline has to try rebooking all of those people on new flights, and that's not easy to do. The airline loses money on cancellations. So they may delay several times, in the hopes that the flight is going to get off the ground. It's certainly frustrating for the passengers to sit and wait, and even more frustrating if that flight gets canceled.
Airports do not set the schedule.
Airline does.
Many reasons a flight can be delayed or cancelled.
The Airplane needed could be in some other place. Maybe diverted by weather or an in flight emergency for a passenger needing medical help.
Maybe the plane has some mechanical issue. A guess is made to how long it might take to repair. It could e longer or shorter time.
Crew like a Pilot may not be available. Like other humans they can get sick too. They might be at their maximum allowed time to fly and need some sleep.
A replacement crew may need to be flown in.
Weather at destination may be changing for example FOG or a storm. They can't guess exactly what the weather will be the minute your flight is expected to land. They try, The crew just like you also want to get home or get paid for their time at work.
Paying passengers some amount for meals or maybe a room costs the Airline. It is not FREE for them.
Just like you they like to make a profit at the end of the day too. If you want a higher ticket price then you can ask for more compensation.
So really if wanted to get home and it involved a 12 hour flight and it was delayed 4 hours and 5 minutes you would rather wait another day before going home? What happens to the passengers already scheduled for the next days flight? Do they give up their seat so you can go?
When your flight is cancelled you DO NOT get next flight. You do get next AVAILABLE seat it might be a few hours it might be days later if the other flights are near full.
Airline does not control the weather. The Airline does not control if the destination Airport has some issue like an emergency that temporarily closes the runways to new arrivals. It could be a nearby Airport and flights are diverted to the one you had intended to fly too.Something at one large Airport can affect 100's of flights around the world.
It happens. The staff reroute planes, reschedule crews find other seats for tens of thousands of stranded passengers and carry on until next disruption to the regular day.
Seriously how many planes do you think are available at last minute to cross an ocean?
Airlines DO NOT LIKE DELAYS. It costs them lots of money. They do what they can to minimize them.
It's not up to the airport, it's the airline thatakes the decisions.
Phil air isn't known for their in time performance.
Delays and cancellations are caused by several factors.
Certain airports like LAX, JFK, SFO and ORD have a lot of traffic and consequently have congestion problems which can cause delays but not usually cancellations. Weather is another big factor which can happen at any airport. If there's a thunderstorm, tornado or snowstorm, that can cripple an airport and cause ripple effects for all airlines that operate to the airport.
But most delays and cancellations are by the airlines themselves. This can be due to mechanical problems, crew placement issues as well as being on the tail end of a ripple effect.
Every plane flies a certain route each day and if a plane gets behind schedule, it generally can't catch up and every subsequent flight will be delayed. Most airlines do not have "extra" aircraft that can fill in, especially smaller airlines so once a problem occurs, it just gets worse. Also, certain routes can only be operated by certain aircraft.
The reason airlines do not cancel a flight right away is that it costs a lot of money to do that. If the flight is cancelled due to weather or airport issues, the passengers are not entitled to anything except being rebooked on the next available flight. If the flight is delayed or cancelled due to mechanical or otherwise reasons within control of the airline, they are liable to pay for hotels and meals so they will not cancel a flight within their control unless absolutely necessary.
There are loose regulations to protect the consumer like Rule 240 which basically states that if an airline can't get the passenger to their destination within 4 hours of the scheduled time and there's another carrier that can, the airline may put you on that flight. It's not official anymore but most airlines still practice the rule.
But ultimately, most airlines do operate within 30 minutes of their schedules. I've flown about 30 legs this year and only 1 was 6 hours delayed, 1 was 1.5 hours and maybe 3 or 4 were less than 30 minutes. All the rest were on time or early. I have had no cancelled flights in several years (*knock on wood)
Most of the time when you hear someone griping about delays and cancellations, they're occasional travelers who just got unlucky. Regular travelers know that **** happens and generally are prepared for such delays,. I have elite status so if there ever is a major issue, I'll be taken care of fast
The airport only delays/cancels flights based on weather or other factors, otherwise it could simply be that the airline is having problems getting the flight crew or something but still intend on flying the plane once they get it there. So the airport is not able to make the determination the airline is.
Flight delays and cancellations are caused by air traffic control issues, crew problems, weather, mechanical and etc. You can do to help minimize the effects of delays and cancellations.
1.Keep Your Travel Information In One Place
2.Use Your Phone
3.Know Your Passenger Rights
4.Download the Flight App like ixigo and it will give you a list of the non-stop and connecting flights available.
5.Sign up for Airline Flight Status Notifications
6.Look at Causes of Delay Numbers
7.View Airline On-Time Statistics and Delay Causes
8.Use Intellicast to check for delays and cancellations
9.Look For Weather Information
10.Sign Up for FlightView
11.Use Your Airline Status
Airlines pays compensation for delays and cancellations.
- Why don't airports use steam catapults and transverse arrestor cables, like they do on aircraft carriers, for extra short take-off & landing? 1. Airports could be pretty tiny with runways no longer than a football field 2. Takeoff and landing (takeoff especially) would be *much* more exciting 3. Airlines could charge people more money because the experience would be much more fun 4. It would save a lot of fuel with much less taxiing around the airfield, and much less fuel used during the takeoff phase
- Do air traffic controllers notify other airports when a flight arrives? For example, suppose that a Delta flight from Atlanta arrives without incident at Detroit. Would Detroit's ATC have to notify Atlanta's ATC of this? Or would this be a matter for the airline's operations department?
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- What's the cheapest flight to get to Springfield/Northampton, MA area from Columbia, SC or close-by airports? Trying to visit family before 5/12 when I start working again and won't be able to for a long time until maybe Christmas if that maybe next year. I've never be on a plane or where to even search. This is very important to me. Any help or tips would be very grateful!