EL AL Matmid - LY 355 Delay known in advance but not announced

Hi,
On 7/Aug LY355 was delayed by 2hrs 50 min, departing TLV for FRA.

On 6/Aug in the evening, Flightaware already showed a delay from 14:40 departure to 15:30. The LY site and Tripit continued showing on-time departure until 14:00, then changed to 16:00.

After boarding, we were subject to a further delay to failure of one air-conditioning pack (the pilot said "we don't want passengers to be uncomfortable" - as though it wasn't needed for pressurization...)

Anyway, we finally departed the gate after being told of a "successful repair", returned to the gate after 15 minutes "failed again", refueled, waited, and then left at 17:30. As far as I could tell from my GPS, we flew at a lower altitude to allow for faster descent from oxygen altitude if the second pack failed.

1) How does Flightaware know of the initial delay, even before the flight plan has been filed?

2) Why doesn't LY see fit to announce (at least list on the web) delays of flights that it obviously knows about?

A similar experience where they know and dont notify.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/el-al-matmid/1373916-ly323-delayed-tomorrow.html

As far as I could tell from my GPS, we flew at a lower altitude to allow for faster descent from oxygen altitude if the second pack failed.
Not sure how you came to that conclusion, and what GPS do you use during flight? :confused:

Hi,


1) How does Flightaware know of the initial delay, even before the flight plan has been filed?

2) Why doesn't LY see fit to announce (at least list on the web) delays of flights that it obviously knows about?

Ya it really sucks when that happens.....
I could be that flightaware gets it updates from airports info-feeds rather than the airlines website. I learned a while ago to check both..as with delays- I never find the airline website as up to date to as the airport's (where the real operations takes place). Its probably some manual thing that relies on El Al Corp offices to update.
I dont think its an El Al thing per se as i have seen it with other airlines.

And welcome to Flyertalk! :)

A similar experience where they know and dont notify.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/el-al-matmid/1373916-ly323-delayed-tomorrow.html

In that case they did notify on the morning of the flight (flight was in the afternoon), although I agree it would of been a help had they notified a night before hand.

I used the GPS on my android phone - held it up near the window, and it reports location, ground speed and altitude - showed we levelled off our climb at 24,000'.

I don't think the Flightaware info came from airport feeds - being curious, I checked both Ben Gurion and Frankfurt airport info - neither showed the delay. Even Tripit Pro which I use, didn't have it until the departure airport announced it 40 min before scheduled departure.

For the purists - my phone was in airplane mode, and GPS is receive only.

It wouldn't have mattered much, but I was catching a connection on SQ to SIN - which I barely made. Others missed their connection entirely.