Flights - The most common reasons for flight delays

Adverse weather conditions, usually means extreme weather conditions, such as Tornadoes, blizzards, hurricanes, etc.

• Weather only causes around 6% of delays.
• In practice airlines often cite bad weather as the reason for a delay, that is more often than not, not the actual reason.

In order to determine if weather was indeed the reason for a flight delay, look at the METAR reports.

• These METAR reports are a format of reporting weather information used in aviation.
• They contain various information, including temperature, dew point, wind direction and speed, precipitation, cloud cover, visibility and barometric pressure.
• The information is encoded and needs to be decoded and analyzed in order to understand whether or not a flight could have been operated on time.
  • This requires technical expertise to check whether your flight was facing adverse weather conditions or not.
  • Usually passengers make use of a specialized service company for this.
  • A legal team that can make the argument when the airline is not cooperating.

A collision between an aircraft and an airborne animal (usually a bird).

They are not that rare an occurrence.

• There are thousands of bird strikes per year.
• Most of these strikes happen during takeoff and landing.
• While they typically cause little damage, they are nevertheless regarded as a security threat.
  • Security protocol requires airlines to perform a particular set of procedures following a bird strike, which may impact its on-time performance.

A knock-on effect is the main cause for what is also known as rotational delay.

• When a flight is delayed because of the late arrival of an incoming aircraft.

Airline staff can decide to go on strike.

• Strikes can vary from minimal impact to complete chaos.

In certain cases, an airline may slightly delay the flight in order to board connecting passengers.

• As a general rule of thumb, carriers will not wait for connecting passengers.

A minor flight delay may be caused as ground handling will require a bit more time transferring the luggage.

Commercial airlines are not only carrying passengers and their luggage

• Cargo makes up between 5 and 10% of their total revenue.
• A flight can sometimes be delayed because of the late arrival of freight.

A flight may be delayed for take off if it does not meet the required number of crew.

• There is a chance that the crew may be arriving from another destination, and if that flight is delayed, so will be the crew.
• As a result, your flight can be delayed if the crew has not arrived yet.

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.

In these situations, unless the airline can replace the crew, there is a good chance that the plane will be grounded.

This does not only include food, but also utensils, service ware, hygienic and miscellaneous items for assisting passengers.

• These are usually managed by an airline catering agent, which is responsible for all aspects of catering line operations.

There are many events that need to happen before the engines of an aircraft are even turned on, including:

• Pilots preparing the aircraft for take off,
• Crew closing the doors,
• Air Traffic Control (ATC) being contacted, and then specifying which runway to use.
• Airline dispatch and operations control deciding the route which the aircraft will take, considering the weather conditions, fuel capacity, passenger load, etc.

There are a lot of things that can delay the preparation of the aircraft, and consequently, its take off on time, including:

• Boarding.
• Cleaning the aircraft.
• Loading the catering and disposing of used galley carts.
• Refueling.

Slowness in performing these tasks could have an impact on the boarding time, which can result in a flight missing its slot, etc.

Aircrafts are subject to very strict technical maintenance rules. and it is not uncommon for a flight to be delayed because of a technical issue which requires immediate attention.

This includes:

• Aircraft parking issues.
• Problems with the water draining system during winter.
• Issues with the engine fan blades.

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.
• This is not a constant number - it depends on things like atmospheric conditions and elevation.
  • So an aircraft taking off at sea level will have a different MTOW than an aircraft taking off at a higher altitude.

These are special machines, allowing 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.

• Should a coffee maker go out of order, then it must be fixed before take off.

It is believed that turtles like the sand surrounding some airports, which is at a natural elevation above the tide, and therefore a safe place to lay eggs.

It is not uncommon for unruly passengers to interfere with the normal operations of a flight.

During a flight, the plane might back around so that the Police / FBI can apprehend someone.