Comments on: Not Why Your Flight Was Canceled

By: av8r

av8r — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:47:43 +0000

The examples given in the article for flight time limits would not cause a cancelation. The weekly and monthly max limits pertain to scheduled hours. As long as a pilot begins his duty day within these limits, he can finish all flying for the day as long as it was originally scheduled legally.
However, pilots have a 16-hour daily limit on duty that can cause a cancellation if exceeded.
I also disagree on the “later flights are better” argument. First of all, the airlines are very motivated to have thier aircraft in position no matter what time of day it is. Also, even if the flight is less likely to be cancelled, it will be much more likely to be delayed. Flight delays tend to snowball throughout the day, especially if there is severe weather in a hub. If you are making a connection and your first flight is delayed, you are very likely to miss your connecting flight. If that connecting flight was the last one of the night, guess what? You get stranded for the night halfway between your origin and destination and if it was caused by the weather, the airline will not buy you a hotel.

By: Hunter

Hunter — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:06:02 +0000

Mileage based checks? That makes no sense at all. MX checks are based on cycles and in many cases flight hours.

Someone earlier mentioned commuter flights canceling more often, and this is usually the case in a slot controlled airport. Mainline will cancel the regional carriers’ flights in a slot controlled airport when weather becomes a factor in order to preserve the mainline flights. There was a case of this a few years ago with UA canceling SkyWest’s flights when weather and fog limited takeoffs at SFO. Then they held SkyWest accountable for their completion performance on the contract. SkyWest disputed and eventually came to an agreement with UA.

By: A

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:03:43 +0000

Speaking of Flight Importance, I once was going MSP-YYC on a 9pm flight. While waiting for over 90 minutes I wondered aloud why 1st class was totally empty. Story I got from the flight attendant was a connection flight from IAH was late, full of oil executives. Guess NW knew which passengers to wait for in order to make that flight profitable.

So, lesson learned, last flight of the day, they will hold it however long it takes to get that plane full up.

By: C$

C$ — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:42:21 +0000

I’m convinced that after Britney Spears, sensational airline articles are the next most popular news items people read, hence writers write, and advertisers sponsor. Surprising that even Popular Science falls victim to that sort of inflamatory nonsense.

By: L1011

L1011 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:26:31 +0000

Many years when I was in RM, we had a 757 fly with one non-rev onboard on a Saturday night. Generally I think their list is off base.

Thanks JP for the info, I did not know that.

By: Benji

Benji — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:13:13 +0000

As always, I agree with you, Brett, in particular about the night versus morning cancellations. Back when airlines would cover your hotel for a night cancellation, maybe it was more tolerable, but now that any kind of weather-related cancellation is considered an “act of G-d” and won’t necessarily be given accomodations, flying at night is more risky, too.

By: TR

TR — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:19:10 +0000

To take Popular Science’s side,

AN airline may fly a plane to a congested, or weather delayed airport in the evening because it knows it has to have the equipment available the next day. But it might not choose to fly in the morning to a bad weather and delays situation knowing that it has flexibility to get majority of its passengers to their destinations (other connections depending on available seats).

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:19:15 +0000

I agree that early AM flights are most reliable. I also do see cancellations of commuter flights when there are many daily flights to the same destination. Even though the airline denies it, sometimes these flights are cancelled for supposed ATC reasons and mysteriously everyone in the terminal fits on the next flight. Happens a lot during mid-day hours. I think they are avoiding flying empty planes. No one ever admits this is happening.

By: CF

CF — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:58:18 +0000

james - Yep, that was actually on American with only 5 passengers onboard. Great example.

By: james

james — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:21:09 +0000

Not sure if you covered this but a few months back an airline (BA I think?) became the environmental whipping boy for while due to their flying a LHR-JFK route with like 20 people on it or something. Yes those people could be rebooked, but the plane probably needed to be in JFK to go somewhere else. And of course there would be complaints and hassles galore if airlines simply suspended positioning flights.

I prefer early morning flights. Many times the plane really is there waiting for me, (not arriving from somewhere else.) Also when returning to my home in Denver I can usually land around 9:30 from almost anywhere in the U.S. and head straight to work. (Thereby having a complete last day at my destination without worry of catching an evening flight.)

And at 6am not too many lines either.