Originally Posted by
ademanuele
[color=#000000]> Why are airlines allowed to significantly exaggerate flight times? .... only in the air for around 30 minutes. BA are scheduling this flight for 1 hour 10 minutes.
Is it written anywhere that the times shown are for the actual flight (airborne) time? Rather than doors closed? Chocks on/off? Moving time? An on time departure is pretty much irrelevant, it's the arrival time that matters.
In an ideal world, the plane would be parked on the runway, and the door would close at the scheduled time, and immediately spool up and take off. Then land and stop at the end of the runway to disembark. Then your "flight time" would match the schedule. Sadly, this is a fantasty.
Air travel is not train/car/bus travel. Travelling by plane has MANY stages - safety briefing, cargo loading, de-icing, paperwork, taxiing etc. You CANNOT close the door and take off. And the airlines don't promise that. So why should the schedule only show the (variable) flying time, when all the other compulsory variables will happen, 100% guaranteed. Its not in anyone's interest for the flight time to be advertised, as it's basically irrelevant to the end-to-end journey.