clubman

GVA -LHR yesterday afternoon, took off just past scheduled time, and arrived on at the gate 25 minutes early...

Rare, very rare in fact but does happen here and there...

sunrisegirl

Early arrivals happen frequently at LGW - often get flights arriving 25 minutes or more early. Thankfully LGW doesn't have the air traffic problems that LHR does.

Swanhunter

My inbound from DBV was 1h15 late departing but made up 30mins en route. Sadly - and I realise atypically from the punctuality stats - all bar one of my LGW flights in the last year have been 30mins late or more. I am jinxed.

sunrisegirl

Indeed that seems to be the case. Remind me not to fly on the same flight as you!

FlyerTalker6245

LHR is great.

But LGW is better

(Except for lounges, flight connections and walking distances)

nesbytes

Ditto

Jculhane

IF LHR could get a 3rd runway, then all flights could be scheduled to land after 6:00 am without any exceptions.

BAA knows that if it does not get the planes down early - it will play catchup all day long

exilencfc

I was very surprised that BA 68 managed to A- leave Philly early (we took off when we should have been pushing back), B- gain time over the Atlantic, and C- go straight into Heathrow. Even having travelled in WT and got caught in immigration I was still outside the scheduled arrival time.

Apparently our early departure arose from the early arrival of the incoming flight, how can a plane have favourable winds in both directions?

OPebble

I believe that it is possible to have different direction winds at different flight levels - but I could be wrong!

BApilotinsider

Indeed. The jetstream winds which dominate over the Atlantic, especially in the winter, are only a few miles wide. Hence the flight planners will attempt to route the aircraft in the west/east jet for the journey to the UK, but will avoid it on the trip westwards.

Aircraft have automatic datalink messaging systems that constantly send wind and temperature information back to the office. With so many aircraft in the sky, wind info is generally very accurate and allows the flights to find the best route for that destination.

EGLL_Director

That isn't how the NAT Tracks works at all "pilot". The Atlantic crossing tracks are fixed for the day. You'll get a clearance into the appropriate track. Sometimes the one you want, sometimes not the one you want. There's rarely more than six or seven tracks in each direction. One is usually much better than the others. Much more down to being at the right place at the right time than careful flight planning.

More in line with the main thread discussion actually BA does need to take responsibility for the lengthy holding times into LHR. NATS are part owned by an airline consortium who were very insistant that runway utilisation should be maximised as much as safely possible. In order to do that a "reservoir" of aircraft is neccassary in the sky to comply with that wish. It's far easier to feed aircraft into the airport from a fixed position than sequence them from differing points as happens even at LGW unless is really busy.

Likewise the pre 0600 emargo isn't set in stone. If it's looking like there are too many aircraft converging onto LHR for 6am a little discretion is permissable by the SATCO.

Jumbodriver

Not if you're filed on a random route clear of the tracks you wont. The 'best' track will also vary by start and destination. The right track for LHR-JFK will rarely be the right track for AMS-ORD etc etc. The evidence of that is that I cannot remember not getting the track requested since NAT RVSM came in.

BApilotinsider

EGLL, I know how the track system works thanks very much.

EGLL_Director

But there are occassions where all of the westbound tracks are bunched over Greenland and even the furthest south is over Newfoundland. Leaving the closest route to a GC also being the route with the most favourable winds. In this case you have all of the East Coast traffic right down to Florida wanting the southern most track. Maybe RVSM airspace gives enough capacity to cope with that demand.

EGLL_Director

Just as well

I wonder if we've ever spoken?