Rant - Early take off Late arrival
Mar 13, 2011, 8:23 am
#1
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Rant - Early take off Late arrival
Isn't it great when you get on board and every one gets to their seat quickly and the plane leaves the gate early and you think you will be at your destination early?
Then you circle around Heathrow at 630 in the morning and end up land late. And then after you long haul flight they don't put you at the gate instead they give you a parking spot and it takes forever for the stairs to show up. And then the stairs finally show up and the bus isn't there. And then once you fianlly get to the terminal and head for fast track customs you have the slowest people in the world processing everyone coming through.
Just an experience that happened today.
Then you circle around Heathrow at 630 in the morning and end up land late. And then after you long haul flight they don't put you at the gate instead they give you a parking spot and it takes forever for the stairs to show up. And then the stairs finally show up and the bus isn't there. And then once you fianlly get to the terminal and head for fast track customs you have the slowest people in the world processing everyone coming through.
Just an experience that happened today.
Mar 13, 2011, 9:03 am
#5
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: East Berlin
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0630 hrs? Too late, you'd missed the party! Things started warming up at 0420 hrs over Fulham. Five or six of those four engined monsters turned up within 10 minutes - WAKING ME UP!
I had to put my slippers on and go for a pee.
Palmer
I had to put my slippers on and go for a pee.
Palmer
Mar 13, 2011, 9:10 am
#6
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Mar 13, 2011, 9:13 am
#7
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Mar 13, 2011, 9:58 am
#9
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Droch - I'm with you on this one.
I must have spent a good month of my life in total in holding patterns waiting to land at LHR. About the only occasion I've ever had a straight in approach was the time Tony Blair was on the same flight as me - so he wasn't completely useless as a PM after all.
The quickest push back to take-off I've ever enjoyed was at the end of May last year, during the BA strike. The MS 777 I was on left T3 and was airborne from 09R in less than 15 minutes.
The fundamental problem LHR has is too many flights and not enough runway capacity.
If you see a pair of slippers in Fulham hung out to dry you'll know who they belong to.
I must have spent a good month of my life in total in holding patterns waiting to land at LHR. About the only occasion I've ever had a straight in approach was the time Tony Blair was on the same flight as me - so he wasn't completely useless as a PM after all.
The quickest push back to take-off I've ever enjoyed was at the end of May last year, during the BA strike. The MS 777 I was on left T3 and was airborne from 09R in less than 15 minutes.
The fundamental problem LHR has is too many flights and not enough runway capacity.
If you see a pair of slippers in Fulham hung out to dry you'll know who they belong to.
Mar 13, 2011, 10:27 am
#10
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Why can't they take off later (I know take off curfews) or cruise slower?
Mar 13, 2011, 10:36 am
#11
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I go for a pee during the night, flights or not.
Mar 13, 2011, 10:53 am
#12
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: East Berlin
Posts: 1,534
I had a look at flightstats. Eight flights landed and on the stand before 5:00 am - a mixture of HKG and SIN. One LOS and one BOS flight in there. The BOS flight was about 30 mins early.
It must be the time of year. The clocks going forward in a couple of weeks will sort it.
Palmer
It must be the time of year. The clocks going forward in a couple of weeks will sort it.
Palmer
Mar 13, 2011, 10:59 am
#13
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Isn't it great when you get on board and every one gets to their seat quickly and the plane leaves the gate early and you think you will be at your destination early?
Then you circle around Heathrow at 630 in the morning and end up land late. And then after you long haul flight they don't put you at the gate instead they give you a parking spot and it takes forever for the stairs to show up. And then the stairs finally show up and the bus isn't there. And then once you fianlly get to the terminal and head for fast track customs you have the slowest people in the world processing everyone coming through.
Just an experience that happened today.
Then you circle around Heathrow at 630 in the morning and end up land late. And then after you long haul flight they don't put you at the gate instead they give you a parking spot and it takes forever for the stairs to show up. And then the stairs finally show up and the bus isn't there. And then once you fianlly get to the terminal and head for fast track customs you have the slowest people in the world processing everyone coming through.
Just an experience that happened today.
Mar 13, 2011, 11:11 am
#14
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Horsham, UK
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Posts: 363
I once came straight in to LHR, the only time I have flown on Qatar - was very impressed!^
I do agree it can be annoying, but this sort of thing is out of the control of any one person - it is public transport at the end of the day, and at least on a private jet you can usually take off quicker because it's from a small airport to a small airport...
There's nothing anyone can do about it, apart from maybe have 5 new runways at Heathrow and three new terminals....
I do agree it can be annoying, but this sort of thing is out of the control of any one person - it is public transport at the end of the day, and at least on a private jet you can usually take off quicker because it's from a small airport to a small airport...
There's nothing anyone can do about it, apart from maybe have 5 new runways at Heathrow and three new terminals....
Mar 13, 2011, 11:35 am
#15
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IIRC although the "night curfew" for arrivals ends at 0600, airlines are permitted a certain number of exceptions between 0430 and 0600. These exceptions are mainly used for the flights that are scheduled to arrive during that 90 minute exception window.