mastutio

Hi all,

BA2865 Antalya to Gatwick is currently showing delayed 3hr26mins now due to take off at 22.26 instead of 19.00. This is due to the outbound flight taking off 4hr18mins late (it is currently over Serbia showing an ETA of 21.27)

Does anyone know if the crew are likely to run out of hours for the return trip? Could it be cancelled?

Currently in the CIP lounge with three very tired kids. We will manage the delay but not sure how we will get on if it’s cancelled at the last minute.

Any advice much appreciated.

Globaliser

By way of immediate comfort, until someone with better info comes along: I would have thought this unlikely.

If the crew were likely to go out of hours before returning to LGW, it would have been more practical to cancel the whole rotation. Otherwise, there would be an aircraft and a crew stranded at AYT overnight, causing even more disruption tomorrow to even more passengers than if the rotation had simply been scrubbed before departure.

Can I help you

I would the flight was recrewed because of the delay.
Also I do not see any delay? (I can see it delayed but not showing internally)

corporate-wage-slave

My recollection is that flights to Turkey from LGW are always a single return duty, in other words not combined with other trips. Which means that so long as nothing else goes wrong, I think you will be ok and the crew will do what they can to get back to LGW quickly. Indeed it may be a shortage of crew that led to the delay, and thus they were only available to fly at the delayed time, in which case you would have plenty of time in hand. If BA were going to night stop then on current information then they would have cancelled your flight already via ba.com/flightstatus which hasn't happened at this point.

mastutio

Thank you all so much for the reassuring responses 👍🏽

Can I help you

BA wouldn’t send a crew out if they thought that there would be any problem with their hours, so as CWS says as long as there are no further issues you will get home tonight all be it late.

mastutio

Just as an update, we had a further 45 minute delay on the tarmac waiting to depart AYT. However flight crew and cabin crew were great. In the end we had a really nice flight considering the circumstances (mostly because our 18 month old slept the entire flight). We arrived a touch over 4 hours late. Short delay with getting steps but then straight through passport control and baggage arrived quickly.

corporate-wage-slave

Were you given a reason for the original delay?

I can see the 45 minutes departure delay was just the sheer weight of other aircraft, some of which were also badly delayed being things like TUI charters. So the number of flights departing around midnight was incredible. Had you left on time then you would not have been in such a queue for take off.

Can I help you

Pleased to hear you got home safely.

mastutio

The pilot came out to speak with us when explaining the further delay. He said the initial delay was staff sickness and a new crew needed to be brought in. He said there was then a further delay as they only had one bus to transfer passengers to the remote stand. He then said the delay on the ground in AYT was due to weather in London limiting the arrivals into LGW but we didn’t experience any weather (at least not from the passenger perspective) and we came straight in.

corporate-wage-slave

You would be potentially in scope for EC261 since most of the delay was under BA's control. It's slightly sticky due to the long delay getting airborne at AYT, and there would have been circumstances where you could have been under 3 hours late back to LGW and thus not eligible for EC261 - BA will probably argue this one. Staff sickness at base would normally not be regarded as extraordinary, but the staffing at LGW must be tiny so genuinely they would struggle if anyone went ill. I guess you should apply anyway, while noting the positive efforts of the crew to look after you.

I think there is a funnel effect on traffic from Turkey to the UK mainly over the Balkans and if there is bad weather this can reduce traffic flows though this funnel. But I'm not an expert on that one.

SK AAR

The OP would not be entitled to comp. under EU Reg 261/04 to the extend that the delay beyond 3 hours was caused by weather conditions in/enroute to LGW and ATC, congestion etc at AYT - it seems to be the case.

DYKWIA

They landed 4 hours late, and 45 minutes was due to "weather" delay at LGW.

KARFA

Yes, from yesterday:

hsmall

May I ask what CB's are? I can only think of citizen's band radio