LCCs and Timetables

[honey lamb]

Is it my imagination or are timetables with LCC merely notional? [:?] Last summer I travelled to LGW with Easyjet and we were in the air just after take-off at our scheduled time of departure. They took great delight in announcing that we had landed 25 minutes ahead of schedule.

Raynair has recently started the Cork-Dublin route and on my first trip in November we were again in the air ahead of schedule in both directions with triumphant announcements of early arrivals. I took the trip again on Monday, returning yesterday. The incoming flight from LGW arrived 20 minutes ahead of time (no doubt boasting of an early arrival) and was due to depart at 16:40. On check-in (which was completed with just my passport while I was unfolding the confirmation page!) I was told that boarding would commence at 16:25. Ha! At 16:05 we were herded into pens (well I am a honey lamb [:w]) and boarded shortly thereafter. At 16:30 we were in the air and with a short 30 minute hop were on the ground at 17:00 with the cabin crew trumpeting that we were 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The same thing happened yesterday with an early departure by 5 minutes, arriving 15 minutes early.

Now while I have no problem with this (except on Monday when my niece was still sitting in her home when the plane landed instead of being at the airport to meet me [:0]), it does annoy me when I see full page ads in the papers boasting of their on-time percentages in comparison with other airlines. Apart from the fact that in many cases they are flying into airports that are not overly busy and so less likely to be held up by ATC, of course they are going to show a high percentage if they regularly leave well ahead of schedule.

Oh, and it has annoyed me when my flight to LHR to connect to a VS flight has been held on the ground to await the early arrival of two LCCs [:(!]

[mitchja]

Hmmmmmmm it's probably all down to figures and statistics....get as many early flights in as possible so that if any later departures do occur, the early flights will lower the stats and make the 'on-time departures' figures/stats look better.

To be honest I would think all airlines probably do this to some extent.

That's my guess anyway.

Regards

[preiffer]

Yup - the LCC's have a reputation for padding their schedules to make sure they're ALWAYS ontime [:0]

Southwest do it too...

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by preiffer
Yup - the LCC's have a reputation for padding their schedules to make sure they're ALWAYS ontime [:0]

Southwest do it too...

Thats exactly what it comes down to,though it's not just the LCC's that do it.

Take a look at the stats on VS7 when you get a chance,see how often that flight lands 30 mijns or more early.

They might well pad their schedules but they also try very hard to meet them - sometimes the knock-on is poor passenger service but I've gotta admire their tenacity and the fact that pad or not they do get better stats than many. Of course, they have to as well with low turnaround times and max out use of metal and crew. Saw some stats recently that said that EasyJet pilots spent way more hours in the air than BA every month, seem to recall Virgin being kinder still.

I remember this changing some years ago. I am sure the flight departure times where wheels up time and arrival times where landing times, but then flight times suddenly added an hour or more (on long haul) to the overall time to give a gate departure and arrival time and then add some allowance for ATC etc.

Almost every flight I take is shorter than advertised, either a later departure is made up in flight or an on-time departure gives and early arrival.

I do have to say that I love those flights that yuo actual push back early and arrive at your destination up to an hour early.

Paul

LCC's are very bad at it but its not only them- all carriers do it.

BA do it on all flights up to EDI-somehow LHR-EDI takes an hour 30mins!!! I believe even VS do it to an extent-