BA171 LHR-PIT showing delayed 24 hours before
Aug 13, 2019, 12:01 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Madrid/UK
Posts: 53
BA171 LHR-PIT showing delayed 24 hours before
does this make sense to anyone here? Yesterday it showed as 30 mins delayed due to late arriving aircraft. This morning it is over an hour delayed for the same reason.
I wonder how they can possibly know that the aircraft will be arriving late so far ahead of time - it is supposed to leave at 16:10 this afternoon? Forgive my naivety. First time on this route.
I wonder how they can possibly know that the aircraft will be arriving late so far ahead of time - it is supposed to leave at 16:10 this afternoon? Forgive my naivety. First time on this route.
Aug 13, 2019, 12:11 am
#2
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This question comes up every so often, you're not the first person to be surprised by it. Indeed I remember one of our much loved celebrity FTers getting caught out by it. It's nothing to do with PIT, you will see it on LHR-MAN too, and anywhere else BA flies to under its own metal.
BA.com/arrdep simply tracks the relevant aircraft through the system. So if the aircraft allocated to PIT is running a bit late somewhere else in the network, the delays will all build up and be imputed for all the services coming up. However fairly obviously if some other aircraft arrives back to LHR on time or early, the schedulers can and do swap over aircraft and immediately the delay vanishes. Also there are some assumptions in there about turnaround time, and it isn't unusual to do this faster than reality.
So BA.com/arrdep is fairly accurate when the aircraft is actually flying on the sector concerned, and maybe for the return to London if there is no option of a swap (e.g. your following PIT-LHR). It is not at all accurate 3 days out. In between the accuracy improves closer to departure. Personally I don't look at it more than a couple of hours before departure, and on shorthaul the results still need to be balanced against the strong chance of a late change.
BA.com/arrdep simply tracks the relevant aircraft through the system. So if the aircraft allocated to PIT is running a bit late somewhere else in the network, the delays will all build up and be imputed for all the services coming up. However fairly obviously if some other aircraft arrives back to LHR on time or early, the schedulers can and do swap over aircraft and immediately the delay vanishes. Also there are some assumptions in there about turnaround time, and it isn't unusual to do this faster than reality.
So BA.com/arrdep is fairly accurate when the aircraft is actually flying on the sector concerned, and maybe for the return to London if there is no option of a swap (e.g. your following PIT-LHR). It is not at all accurate 3 days out. In between the accuracy improves closer to departure. Personally I don't look at it more than a couple of hours before departure, and on shorthaul the results still need to be balanced against the strong chance of a late change.
