Airlines often changing their routes at the last minute due to weather and jet streams with effort to be cost effective and optimize their fuel efficiency.

Infrastructure is another issue:

• Some airports do not get the sufficient radar to handle more than one flight at a time, which forces air traffic regulators to require larger periods of time between take offs and landings to ensure safety, which easily turns into a chain reaction if one or more flights are delayed.

Different airports have different standards when it comes to delays caused by adverse weather conditions, usually determined by national regulatory bodies such as the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in the US, for example.

• Adverse weather conditions are often cited as one of the main reasons for flight delays, however they are not as common as most people think. That is because even if the weather does not appear to be optimal, it is not a given that the flight cannot be operated on time.

Adverse weather conditions usually means extreme weather conditions:

• Tornadoes, blizzards, hurricanes, etc - which typically account for only about 6% of all flight delays.

What this means in practice is that even though airlines often cite bad weather as the reason for a delay, that is more often than not, not the actual reason.

• It is also why you could be entitled to a compensation even if the airline told you that the flight was delayed due to bad weather.

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

• These 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 flight can be delayed as a result of a collision between an aircraft and an airborne animal (usually a bird)

• These events are called “bird strikes”

They are not that rare an occurrence: there are on average about 13,000 bird strikes per year in the US alone.

• 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 - i.e. when a flight is delayed because of the late arrival of an aircraft.

• Since airlines are optimizing the utilization of their fleet, it is not uncommon that your flight may be delayed because the aircraft which is supposed to operate your flight has been delayed on its previous route.

Airline staff can decide to go on strike to leverage labor power and enter into negotiations with their employer.

• The impact of these strikes can be minimal just like it can completely cripple the business and cause enormous expenses to the airline.

In certain cases, the 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.
• However, they seem to approach this on a case by case basis.

This may be the reason for a minor flight delay 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 cannot take off if it does not meet the required number of crew.

• As a result, your flight can be delayed if the crew has not arrived yet (which is not that uncommon).

In certain other situations, there is a chance that the crew may be arriving from another destination, and if that flight is delayed, so will be the crew.

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 (a flight, which was delayed because of the late arrival of a previous flight).

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.

• All of the above are managed by an airline catering agent, which is responsible for all aspects of catering line operations, such as loading and unloading equipment and supplies, driving large catering trucks, managing inventory, etc.
• Obviously, there are a lot of moving parts involved and things sometimes do not go as planned, which may cause an additional delay.

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 is 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 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 much like the technical issues which we previously mentioned, it must be fixed before take off.

This is an actual reason.

• It is believed that turtles like the sand surrounding the airport, 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.

, in which case no compensation can be claimed as the latter are considered circumstances outside of airline’s control.

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