Originally Posted by
markzz2
New York JFK can be a 1 and a half hour taxi even on a good day so bear that in mind. I never understand why the ATC in the US cannot let aircraft leave the stands in order, and not just have them line up..... the wastage of fuel and passenger comfort seems to not be important to them.
As lucifer UK pointed out - unlike many other airports (outside the US) there really isn't a slot system (according to a US friend of mine) - so airlines are free to schedule flights when they want.
They can't leave the flights on stand because of the huge number of incoming flights needing the space.
The huge number of incoming flights compounds the problem as departing flights have to wait for 'space' to take off - which can be very infrequent.
This is a common problem with QF one-oh-late (QF108) - we sat on the taxiway for three hours once. I was on the left hand side of the aircraft and could see 4, 5 and 6 aircraft all coming in to land and we just had to wait until there was a space. (It was really iteresting to watch as each aircraft came in and landed another tiny speck of light - the next arriving plane - would then come into view.)
With our three hour delay we were only like number 7 when we joined the queue.