Flights at random minutes past the hour

[Mojo]

Having booked a recent flight in the USA I noted the flight as per the airline will be departing at “1:07 PM” (also note use of the 12-hour clock), and the flight time is 2 hours and 8 minutes.

Most other countries flights seem to be advertised as at :x0 or :x5. Although I was watching a 1990s video on YouTube the other day of Airline and there was an EasyJet flight departing at a random time too.

Does anyone know why this is done in the USA and is it common practice anywhere else?

 

[joncombe]

You also see it in parts of Norway for Wideroe when serving some of the small airports where flights are only on the ground for a few minutes at a time and they can stop half a dozen or so times.

 

[EC Traveller]

From the US recently, I also noted some odd dep. times. I concluded at the time these were 'centre times' of 15' take-off slots being xx:07 and xx:52 etc.
There is always the other possibilty of deferentiating flights as a few may be booked the same 15' slots, so not to sound like a nearby (in time) flight.

With frequent delays it doesn't seem to matter what they write !

- But I usually travel by rail.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Does anyone know why this is done in the USA and is it common practice anywhere else?

I've seen the same and wondered exactly the same thing. I thought originally that it was simply overcrowded airports, but the same thing is found in tiny regional airports with a handful of flights too.

Maybe it's just an FAA regulation there that the slot is to the minute rather than to 5 minutes? It is incredibly jarring, though.