Bureau of Transportation Statistics. And 1. Understandably, these numbers went up significantly in But even as air travel ramps back up, delay and cancellation rates remain high — especially for American and Southwest.
On Oct. Related: American Airlines meltdown raises concerns for holiday travel. When you draw the unlucky straw and have a very delayed or canceled flight, sometimes you just have to wait it out.
Other times, how you react to airline delays and cancellations will greatly influence how and when you get where you are going. For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.
You can see general flight trends across the country on FlightAware , which gives you a good overview of how a day in the sky looks. Here are some details on that process with American and United. Alternatively, you can get flight status updates sent directly from FlightAware. This can be a tricky question to answer. Remember that bad weather will sometimes cause a temporary ground stop at the airport. As soon as the weather gets better, the stop is lifted and airlines try to get their flights off the ground ASAP.
Related: 3 things to do if your flight is delayed. Bad weather is the bane of all travelers. Monitor weather patterns starting a few days before your flight. If you know bad weather is coming later in the day, ask for an earlier flight if you can. More and more airlines are allowing travelers to change plans with no fare difference in advance of severe weather problems, like an impending blizzard, ice storm or even a heavy thunderstorm.
Some will even proactively change your flight for you. If an airline gets ahead of weather issues, you may be able to reschedule your flight by a few days in either direction with no change fees. Related: How the weather affects your flight — the atmosphere and winds. The spacing interval between the takeoffs of the flights is fixed and cannot be compressed. As a result, all of the flights that are scheduled to arrive from the airport with the weather problems will arrive late.
And to further complicate things, the spacing of aircraft increases as the weather worsens. There are many factors that can cause air traffic, all of which have a direct impact on both arrivals as well as the departure time of flights. Air and ground congestion are a major factor why flights get delayed. If a scheduled flight pushes back from the gate late, that flight could impact the departure of other flights, such as the next flight scheduled to arrive at the gate occupied by the late flight departure.
Moreover, it causes disruptions in normal air traffic patterns. Flights that are arrived at the scheduled time might have to 'circle' around the airport area because of congestion.
Air traffic controllers have to hold some flights in a prescribed pattern before they are cleared to land. So, sometimes when you check on the status of the flight within 30 minutes of the scheduled arrival time, you may find a discrepancy.
This is due to aircraft being placed in holding patterns around the airport may be reported as arrived, even though the flight is still in the air.
A go-around is a situation when an aircraft is just about to land at an airport, but the pilot judges that it is not safe to land. In this case, the pilot initiates a go-around, which in reality means he will initiate a climb, and proceed to go back into the approach pattern to make another landing attempt - all guided by air traffic control. It is not impossible for a flight to be delayed by several hours if the crew is late.
Regulations are set in place to ensure that members of the crew, meaning pilots and flight attendants, are well rested before the flight. Sometimes the crew may max out their hours because of scheduling difficulties or a rotational delay a flight, which was delayed because of the late arrival of a previous flight.
Another less known reason which may cause the delay of a flight is waiting for catering. The latter does not only include food, but also utensils, service ware, hygienic and miscellaneous items for assisting passengers. All of the above are managed by an airline catering agent, which is responsible for all aspects of catering line operations, such as loading and unloading equipment and supplies, driving large catering trucks, managing inventory, etc.
The list of things that need to happen before the engines of an aircraft are even turned on is long. In summary, some of the major events that take place are:. Needless to say, there are a lot of things that have gone in preparation for each and every step and that will determine whether or not the aircraft can take off on time.
For example, airline dispatch and operations control will decide and plan the route, which the aircraft will take, considering the weather conditions, fuel capacity, passenger load, etc.
The preparation for take off of your aircraft begins as soon as it lands. Some of the main activities are :. Once again, there are a lot of things that can delay the preparation of the aircraft, and consequently, its take off on time. Something as simple as not having the aircraft cleaned on time because of lack of staff, could have an impact on the boarding time, which can result in a flight missing its slot, etc. It is rather rare but not impossible for a flight to be delayed by several hours because of issues surrounding preparation.
Aircrafts are subject to very strict technical maintenance and rightly so. It is not uncommon for a flight to be delayed because of a technical issue which requires immediate attention. While this does sound scary, most of the time it poses no risk to passengers and is relatively easy to repair. Similarly, the Department of Transportation in the US also states that a technical issue, even if it is extraordinary, does not exonerate the carrier from liability.
Every airplane has something called maximum takeoff weight MTOW , which is the combined weight of cargo, passengers and their luggage, fuel, catering, etc. If an airplane exceeds that weight, it cannot take off. So an aircraft taking off at sea level will have a different MTOW than an aircraft taking off at a higher altitude. This is yet another reason for a delay, or even worse - a boarding denial.
Luckily, just like the technical issue, it does not qualify as extraordinary circumstances and the airline must pay compensation. They are made in a way which allows water to boil properly even at high altitudes and the electric circuit is only compatible with that of an airplane. The Federal Aviation Administration in the US and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency require coffee makers to have safety features to prevent fires caused by electrical malfunctions.
Like any other vehicle that takes passengers from point A to point B, occasional issues can occur. The pilots run checks before the plane leaves, which is when an issue can be discovered.
The airline will either delay the flight to give the mechanics plenty of time to fix the problem, or they will change planes entirely. There are plenty of other reasons why passengers face flight delays, such as time for fueling, boarding passengers, aircraft cleaning, etc.
If you are interested in the aviation world and a dispatcher program, Sheffield School of Aeronautics offers plenty of dispatcher courses to choose from. Contact Sheffield School today.
Login Register. Skip to content. Extreme Weather As most frequent flyers already know, extreme weather events can cause flight delays, and even flight cancellations in some cases. Mechanical Delays Like any other vehicle that takes passengers from point A to point B, occasional issues can occur. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
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