Aircraft departure times!

[Condor7]

When you book any flight you are given a departure time, but when do airlines class the departure to actually be?

Is it when the doors close, when the plane starts moving, or when the wheels actually leave the ground?

Thanks.

 

[DeparturesBeck]

When the wheels move. The time shown on passenger itineraries between departure and arrival, will (as a minimum) take account of taxi-out time, flying time, and taxi-in time.

Therefore an itinerary of one hour and ten minutes, may be made of:

10 minutes taxi-out to runway
55 minutes flying time
5 minutes taxi-in after landing.

Taxi times are airport specific.

 

[Heinz57]

Hence why at some of the larger airports, a flight could leave the gate bang on time (or even early) but end up taking off 30 mins late, because of queues around the taxi way.

 

[WatcherZero]

My dads flight last week, landed bang on time but was 8 minutes late getting to the gate.

 

[berneyarms]

How do you know it "landed bang on time"?

The times quoted in airline timetables are:
Departure Time - the time the aircraft pushes back from the gate
Arrival Time - the time the aircraft stops on stand.

Nowhere in any timetable do airlines quote the time an aircraft lands on the runway.

Timetables are designed to take account of taxi times and flight times.

 

[Shrimper]

Except Ryanair, who seem to happily 'confuse' landing and arrival times to boast about their early/on time arrival upon landing.

 

[berneyarms]

Except Ryanair, who seem to happily 'confuse' landing and arrival times to boast about their early/on time arrival upon landing.

Onboard maybe - but that's classic Ryanair - their timetable still quotes block times - gate to gate.

An excellent example of where timetabled times are relevant is Madrid Barajas airport where there are very long taxi times to/from terminals 1 and 2 from the normal runways - these have to be included in the overall journey time.

 

[WatcherZero]

How do you know it "landed bang on time"?

The times quoted in airline timetables are:
Departure Time - the time the aircraft pushes back from the gate
Arrival Time - the time the aircraft stops on stand.

Nowhere in any timetable do airlines quote the time an aircraft lands on the runway.

Timetables are designed to take account of taxi times and flight times.

Because there were no delays until it changed to landed, then after a couple of minutes at landed status it changed to 8 minute delay at disembarking.

 

[berneyarms]

Because there were no delays until it changed to landed, then after a couple of minutes at landed status it changed to 8 minute delay at disembarking.

That doesn't mean anything - someone might not have updated the screen.

As I said above the only time that matters is the time the aircraft is on stand at the gate.

There is no timetabled time for an aircraft to land per se - only the time at the gate.

 

[johnnychips]

If a plane has a short queue from pushback to takeoff, and a clear run in, then no problems accessing a gate, it can be incredibly early. On short hops like Manchester to London, most of the scheduled time is allocated to taxiing and circling, rather than flying time itself.

 

[edwin_m]

Thanks to posters on this thread for explaining to me why the flight time as announced by the captain is always so much less than the interval between published departure and arrival times.

Can someone tell Ryanair to shut off that infuriating "on-time" brag announcement just after touchdown?

 

[WestCoast]

All airlines work on a parking stand to parking stand basis and build in contingency time, which as pointed out depends on the airport(s) involved and possibly the time of day/year in selected cases. People often say it's a ploy to keep flights on time, but I think it's entirely sensible in the majority of cases because the vast majority of travellers prefer to be on schedule.

On a recent Munich-London trip, I flew easyJet into Gatwick and returned with Lufthansa from Heathrow. EasyJet blocks the sector at 2h00 eastbound (1h55 westbound) and Lufthansa 1h50 (1h45 eastbound), on paper it looks like easyJet is slightly more generous as they fly into a less congested airport at the London end and have less distance to fly on most routings.

However, on the easyJet flight we pushed back slightly late due to people stuck in security queues and then had to travel to the far end of the airport to be deiced. We then had to hold for takeoff and then before landing at Gatwick and so clocked up a delay of 15-20 minutes past the scheduled arrival time on stand. On the Lufthansa flight, we pushed back bang on time and waited a very short time to take off, on stand 25 minutes ahead of schedule in Munich.

Another factor are the turnaround times which may affect how much extra time is needed. Ryanair often works on a quick 25 minutes arrival on stand to push back, easyJet 25-45 minutes and Lufthansa/BA are often an hour on short-haul flights.

 

[flymo]

This might be of interest regarding taxiing times at various airports in the UK, particularly number 9.

 

[ian959]

Because there were no delays until it changed to landed, then after a couple of minutes at landed status it changed to 8 minute delay at disembarking.

That is simply a lag in the entering of timing point data into whatever system they are using. The reality is that your father's plane arrived late, not bang on time. As already stated, airlines work purely on block to block times.