Planes Running Late
One 7:05 AM flight from NY to LA and is expected to arrive 10:03 AM. The other is expected to get in at 11:28 AM. Both are on American Airlines. The difference? The first set of times are from 1997, the other is from 2007.
No, planes are not getting slower. In fact, they are faster. But, with all the recent anger of delays, some airlines have taken to the habit of planning on being delayed, and setting their arrival time based on a planned delay, What’s the advantage of this? The Department of Transportation gives their ratings based on whether or not flights ARRIVE on time. So if you add an extra hour, you’ll get in on time, and be rated low for delays, even if every flight you fly is delayed an hour.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Under promise and over deliver finally makes it to the airlines. I don’t know why we would expect that it wouldn’t apply to them…
Have to disagree here.
If a flight is consistently arriving early, then call it schedule padding.
But airlines owe us - to the greatest extent possible - a realistic schedule based on all known factors. When can we expect to land? And if either (a) old projections were bad and frequently missed or (b) the factors which contribute to arrival times change then a schedule should indeed change.
When I see a flight time change greater than an hour on a US-Europe route, one question I might have is the specific dates being used from a schedule.. since US and Europe change their clocks at different times a one hour swing doesn’t always indicate a longer flight.
Leave a Comment