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What does "Eagle Flights Only" mean in FAA delays?

 
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Old Feb 14, 2007, 11:46 am
  #1  
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What does "Eagle Flights Only" mean in FAA delays?

The FAA delays website,

http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp

Says this about LGA, BOS, DCA and IAD:
Due to EAGLE FLIGHTS ONLY, there is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington, DC (DCA). To see if you may be affected, select your departure airport and check "Delays by Destination".
I googled EAGLE FLIGHTS ONLY, searched the FAA terms glossary and searched all FT Forums and this one separately. The only thing I could find was this:

Originally Posted by BoeingBoy
The FAA just put out an update - Eagle flights stopped for LGA, JFK, BOS - AA may have requested the ground stop discussed above.
in the US Airways forum. That doesn't seem right because it seems like the FAA wouldn't call AE flights "Eagle Flights". However, it matches that CLE says something similar about BTA flights only, and BTA is the ICAO call sign for ExpressJet, which, IIRC is the Continental regional operator in CLE.

The only departure airport I could find that was affected was ORD, which says:

Due to EAGLE FLIGHTS ONLY, departure traffic destined to General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport, Boston, MA (BOS) will not be allowed to depart until at or after 1:00 pm CST.
AE doesn't operate ORD-BOS (AA does) and AE does operate ORD-IAD but nothing is mentioned about IAD delays ex ORD.

So I give up, what does "EAGLE FLIGHTS ONLY" mean on the FAA delay web site?
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Old Feb 14, 2007, 12:02 pm
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saw this as well. equally curious
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Old Feb 14, 2007, 12:06 pm
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Updates:

-Lots of airports (including ORD) are now showing departure delays into all the Eagle Flights Only arrival delay airports, and CLE for BTA flights.

-"Eagle Flight" is the call sign for AE flights. Sorry for everyone to whom this is way old news.

So I think the answer is that "Eagle Flights Only" means AE flights only when it is used by the FAA.

Unanswered mysteries:

-Why do they use the Call sign for AE flights and the ICAO code for Continental Express flights?

-Why does ORD show delays to Boston when there are no AE flights on that route? Are all AA flights held or is this just automatic because there are flights to BOS from ORD and BOS has a hold on some types of flights?
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Old Feb 14, 2007, 12:44 pm
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Odd as JFK is now also showing a ground stop for all B6 flights as well. I have not seen the FAA be this specific before in relation to specific airlines..usually they just seem to post a ground stop for the whole airport, at least when I have been looking...
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Old Feb 14, 2007, 12:45 pm
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dupe........

Last edited by mizzou miles; Feb 14, 2007 at 3:38 pm
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Old Feb 14, 2007, 1:55 pm
  #6  
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A family member is scheduled to fly LGA-RDU tomorrow on the 12:40pm flight. We think that the mess at LGA will be figured out by mid-day.

What do people think? With LGA completely shut down to MQ traffic, I'm getting worried that it's going to be chaos tomorrow.
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Old Feb 14, 2007, 2:36 pm
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And I thought I was the only one who saw this....

So, if Eagle requests a ground stop, let's say due to .... ramp issues, is it still a ramp issue or does it become ATC?

Just for proof: here's a pic of the FAA OIS site, along with the detail on the JFK ground stop.

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Old Feb 14, 2007, 2:37 pm
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I saw this earlier and also was wondering about it -- thumbs up to the OP for getting the thread started.

As to the specificity of the airlines, a couple theories:

1) Maybe there is snow removal (or a failure to remove the snow yet) or something at JFK is on the taxiways around the Jetblue terminal, preventing planes from getting to/leaving the gates at that specific terminal -- hence, only naming B6 planes in conjunction with "Due to Weather Snow"?

2) As msilano helpfully showed us, apparently the airlines are requesting their own ground stops -- which would clarify why earlier the BTA ground stop in CLE had something around "BTA req" in there as well (BTA request?). Maybe they have to inform the FAA of the operational ground stops, as opposed to just keeping it an internal airline matter and letting the pilots/GAs know, so that the FAA can better apportion landing slots, which are restricted due to the weather, to the icky weather?

Last edited by blondedawn; Feb 14, 2007 at 2:41 pm Reason: Intervening post made edited portion moot
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Old Feb 14, 2007, 3:59 pm
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I've seen airline-specific messages in the FAA advisories a number of times in the past. It does indeed mean American Eagle flights in this context. This is not really ATC delay -- the FAA system is just a quick way for an airline's ops department to get the information disseminated to ATC and pilots.
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Old Feb 14, 2007, 4:01 pm
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At JFK typically the de-icing delays get to be HUGE. As I recall even though there is AA de-icing equipment at JFK I was told the whole de-icing operation was run by the airport facility.

This 'experience' from a couple years back when a 6:30pm departure (normal international busy time) was delayed for 6+ hours on the tarmac waiting for de-icing .. and then waiting for more fuel since we burned off so much driving around JFK to get de-iced (think twice once, then waits then fuel then a second deice). We almost had a longer wait when the ground crew brought a ramp to the plane and started to open L1 when the FA had not been informed to disarm the slide!

Not sure to blame B6 or JFK at this point ..
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