Flights departing/arriving on time?
Flights departing/arriving on time?
Author
Discussion

Condi

Original Poster:

19,804 posts

195 months

Monday 20th May 2019
quotequote all
What percentage of flights in the UK depart and/or arrive on time? Punctuality among some of the cheaper airlines (EasyJet, Ryanair and Flybe) seems pretty terrible at the moment.

Krikkit

27,842 posts

205 months

Munter

31,330 posts

265 months

Monday 20th May 2019
quotequote all
Condi said:
What percentage of flights in the UK depart and/or arrive on time? Punctuality among some of the cheaper airlines (EasyJet, Ryanair and Flybe) seems pretty terrible at the moment.
According to the BBC interviewer (and the Ryan Air guy didn't disagree), Ryan Air are top of the list for punctuality.

They are just "hated" because people book a reasonably priced seat on a no-frills airline, and find it's no-frills.

Kiribati268

572 posts

161 months

Monday 20th May 2019
quotequote all
Munter said:
According to the BBC interviewer (and the Ryan Air guy didn't disagree), Ryan Air are top of the list for punctuality.

They are just "hated" because people book a reasonably priced seat on a no-frills airline, and find it's no-frills.
Depends on how the on time is calculated. Ryanair are notorious for massive timetable padding, meaning it leaves late but arrives 'on time'.

Ground service charges are calculated on whatever is greater (planned or actual), so no difference in costs, but stats to the pax, they make themselves seem great.

tbf, i've flew with ryanair and easyjet a fair few times and all of them have been fine. I wouldn't want to be booked with them if there's massive disruption, but you take your chances. I'd go with them again, you pays your money and take the chance.

NickCQ

5,392 posts

120 months

Tuesday 21st May 2019
quotequote all
Munter said:
They are just "hated" because people book a reasonably priced seat on a no-frills airline, and find it's no-frills.
Some of the naked profiteering initiatives, such as splitting up groups by default unless you pay to sit together, are slightly offensive.

Condi

Original Poster:

19,804 posts

195 months

Tuesday 21st May 2019
quotequote all
Krikkit said:
Why thank you.

I have nothing against the budget airlines, in terms of their price/offering, but each of the last 4 or 5 trips have had delays at one or both ends.

phil squares

79 posts

125 months

Tuesday 21st May 2019
quotequote all
Why worry about a departure delay when the arrival time is what counts for OTP?

Petrus1983

10,925 posts

186 months

Tuesday 21st May 2019
quotequote all
phil squares said:
Why worry about a departure delay when the arrival time is what counts for OTP?
This. They have so much capacity to ‘catch up’ if needed.

Some might find this interesting about why aviation hasn’t got any faster since the 60’s/70’s -

https://alum.mit.edu/slice/why-hasnt-commercial-ai...

Sifly

572 posts

202 months

Thursday 23rd May 2019
quotequote all
I've been flying commercially for around 15 years.

It still amazes me when we depart on time (which happens fairly often)!

When you think about all the trades, people, services, skills, etc that need to all come together at the right time, in such a small time window, and for everything to go as planned - its quite frankly a miracle when a flight does depart on time!! The scope for delays and problems is huge, especially during peak periods.

There are so many variables such as weather, technical problems, passengers, French ATC etc, just have a think about all the things going on behind the scenes when your getting frustrated because the plane is still parked at the gate 10 minutes after its scheduled departure time!

Speculatore

2,003 posts

259 months

Friday 24th May 2019
quotequote all
A common trick is to base the 'Departure Time' on when they announce 'Now Boarding' on the screens. These are the times that they submit for the records. many times I have been in the lounge when 'Now Boarding' comes on the screen and when you get to the gate the airplane isn't even there.

phil squares

79 posts

125 months

Friday 24th May 2019
quotequote all
Speculatore said:
A common trick is to base the 'Departure Time' on when they announce 'Now Boarding' on the screens. These are the times that they submit for the records. many times I have been in the lounge when 'Now Boarding' comes on the screen and when you get to the gate the airplane isn't even there.
Absolute rubbish. The OOOI (out/off/on/in) times are automatically generated by the ACARS system after certain conditions (airline specific) usually, parking brake released, doors (all) closed, APU or Engine electrics and movement. Same goes for the in time.

Don't know where you got your info from, but it is somewhat wrong.

Speculatore

2,003 posts

259 months

Saturday 25th May 2019
quotequote all
phil squares said:
Absolute rubbish. The OOOI (out/off/on/in) times are automatically generated by the ACARS system after certain conditions (airline specific) usually, parking brake released, doors (all) closed, APU or Engine electrics and movement. Same goes for the in time.

Don't know where you got your info from, but it is somewhat wrong.
Only going from what a member of BA staff told me when I arrived at the gate as the screen said 'Boarding' and the plane wasn't even at the stand. She told me it was to register in the main data base that the plane was 'Boarding' on-time. It may well have been feeding a different set of statistics that provide data elsewhere.

Shakermaker

11,317 posts

124 months

Tuesday 28th May 2019
quotequote all
Speculatore said:
Only going from what a member of BA staff told me when I arrived at the gate as the screen said 'Boarding' and the plane wasn't even at the stand. She told me it was to register in the main data base that the plane was 'Boarding' on-time. It may well have been feeding a different set of statistics that provide data elsewhere.
The passenger info screens in the terminal have their own set of measures within them which are set to try to maximise actual airline punctuality as well as of course maximise the amount of time people can spend (money) in the departures lounge.

They will give gate information a specific amount of time before the scheduled departure time to get people to start heading to the gate. Some are programmed as much to give extra time if it is known to be a route which presents lots of issues - for example lots of customers with visas that need checking, or if they know that the aircraft is going to be parked on a stand where you need to be taken on a bus. And if they know the aircraft is going to arrive late, and therefore depart late, the screens will update accordingly.

Having the passengers all waiting together at the gate before the plane arrives on stand isn't a huge issue for the airline but they do need to make sure it fits with their turn around plan and also having staff available to man the gate for that defined boarding process. Having passengers arrive too late won't help anyone of course.

These stats are all kept up for the airport, but aren't the same as the CAA arrival/departure stats which are based on the info as noted above.