Hi Folks-

I'm confused (permanently, but also specifically to an issues). Here's my issue, I'm on CO1625 later today. CO's website says it departs EWR at 7:30 and arrives in DIA at 10:10 pm. However Flight aware, DIA's airport website, Flightstats, and Flightaware is listing a ~9:10 pm arrival.

Why the disconnect? Is it just because they're building in a whole ton of extra time to make up for leaving EWR and we might arrive much earlier (in the 9:10-9:15 timeframe).

I have a friend picking me up, so I sort of want to tell them the right info. :-)

CO will show the scheduled time based on their expected operations while FlightAware shows what's in the filed flight plans. As the day goes on if CO thinks that they'll actually operate on time then they'll update the website with the early arrival. Or if things are not running on time in EWR they'll file new flights plans and the FlightAware details will update.

The easiest thing for your friend is to have them check co.com after departure or set up TripAlerts to email them.

A 9:10 arrival on that route seems a bit quick to me (3 hr 40 min), even on a good day.

It arrived yesterday at 9:50, with a scheduled arrival at 10:10. ^

Thanks, folks. On my way and grateful for the advice.

Here is an entirely tiny piece of trivia.....

When the dispatcher in Houston builds the flight plan for your specific flight (about two hours prior to departure), and releases it to the crew, the times will update to the actual times expected for the flight tonight (based on forecast winds, planned route, etc.).

If you check the website and notice that the departure time is the same, and the arrival time changed from 10:10 to 10:02 for instance, you know you've got some favorable winds tonight.....if it goes to 10:23, you know the winds are a bit stronger, or they had to build a longer route due to enroute weather.

If you've all wondered why the times changed from the 'schedule' to something more specific.....that's the reason. Your flight has been flight planned and released into the system.

Additionally, after takeoff we update the enroute winds, and update our scheduled touchdown time (based on the mach number we're going to fly, and current winds, vice forecast), which will generate another updated arrival time into the system.

I send my wife a link to my flight number and have her click on that about an hour after we've departed.......that should be about the most accurate arrival time that you'll see.

DRW

Now that's a real pro tip DRW. Told my friend to check an hour into the flight and I plan to use that rule going forward! Thanks.

the block-block time per the sked is 4 hr, 40 min w/ a 2 time zone change....

Note the ETA is now 2144 wheels down, 2152 in the gate.

Airline schedule are always padded compared to flight time for taxi out/taxi in. The schedule says they'll depart the gate at 1930 and arrive at the gate at 2210 and we display that on FlightAware 2 days before departure.

24 hours before departure, the FAA's Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS) loads the airline schedules and sends us a message with their best estimate of wheels up departure time and flight time. The departure time is almost always the airline's scheduled gate departure time + 10 minutes and the time enroute is flight time only.

Throughout the day the airline and FAA will independently send us updates to both the gate and flight times. 30-120 minutes before departure the airline files a flight plan, ETMS digests it, and FlightAware gets an update. CO tends to file flightplans later than average, sometimes 30 minutes before departure.

If there's any last minute delays after the flightplan is filed, we'll get updates from the airline or FAA and adjust the flight times accordingly; as far as the FAA is concerned the flightplan is valid for 2h after departure, so the airlines typically don't file a new flightplan unless they want to make a change to routing/etc.

After departure ETMS will continue to provide ETA updates; the first one usually comes 0-15 minutes after departure. The airline will also provide gate time estimate updates.