Originally Posted by
PanAmWT
UA 871, as well as all the international flights out of SFO that I checked (UA, BR, LH) were on time yesterday and today. It appears that international flights are protected? It may make sense because these wide-body planes carry more passengers per takeoff, so the number of passengers affected is minimized.
Two very basic things (generally) about flight delay programs, at least for the CONUS and maybe Canada:
(1)
Only arrival flights are delayed. Departures are not. If runway capacity is limited, they need to limit who gets airborne from various origins because planes can't be held airborne forever. Departures are delayed only because of incoming arrival delays (planes, crew, or too many pax not there i.e. rebooking nightmare). Of course for this case in SFO, gate departures can be on time but taxi time can be extensive due to runway limitations.
(2)
Long-haul/international flights are not delayed. Ground delay programs only cover flights originating from CONUS and Canada. The FAA ATCSCC coordinates with stakeholders for delay programs only a few hours ahead (e.g. early morning), so long-haul flights are already airborne. And of course long-haul flights are fewer in number so ATC lets them fly first and work later flights into the timeline.