"Sorry folks...we're waiting for an empty gate"
 

These are amongst the most dreaded words to hear from the pilot. It almost always seems to happen to me late night hours at EWR - usually after a long or delayed flight. What really peeves me or actually enrgages me is that as the pilot says this I'm usually staring at multiple empty gates.

The way I figure is that what they mean is that "the convenient or assigned gate is not available". Too much trouble to move the plane again after the PAX get off.

I hate this, I hate this, I hate this !!!

What's even worse is when the pilot keeps "bragging" that we made great time and we'll be at the gate 30 minutes early - and then we sit and wait on the tarmac for a gate to open.

Happens all the time late at EWR and JFK.

I'ver had it happen so many times over the years that I can usually tell what the next announcement will be after an early arrival and stop for no reason. My seatmates are always incredulous as to how I know :p

It is even worse when you arrive 30 minutes early and deplane 30 minutes late due to "gate issues". What crap!

It is annoying...count me in there with you! But it's worth mentioning that occasionally some gates can't take certain aircraft for whatever reason - widebody aircraft vs ERJ-sized ramp area, etc.

I got you beat
 

Try returning to EWR from NRT and getting that message. "Just need to wait for Bejing flight to back out of our gate". 15 minutes later, "There's a disruptive passenger on board who has been removed". Some time later "Before Bejing can leave we have to remove the passenger's luggage". Dig, dig, dig . . .

Total wait time after one of CO's longest flights - over 90 minutes.

Beat that!

What I am seeing with more frequency is the captain announcing that we have to wait for the ground crew to come out to direct us in, usually a wait of 10 minutes or more. Don't they know we're coming??

It's the 21st century now, so a press of a button should be all it takes to send an arrival to a different and empty gate instead of waiting for an assigned gate to open. This particular logistics issue hits the airlines over and over, yet management still has not figured out a solution other than to let the arrival stew in the bull pen?

It seems to happen to me all the time arriving home at IAH, especially if we're early. I haven't had it cause the arrival to end up late, but it is frustrating when you arrive 15 minutes early and then wait 10-15 minutes for the gate to open up. So much for the early arrival.

A lot of it at IAH right now is probably due to the number of gates that are still closed for the ongoing renovations of Terminal C.

It seems like this is happening more and more and I don't know if management knows how much this infuriates people. Last week, arriving from MEX the pilot bragged about how we are in 20 minutes early (GREAT!). Then the second message about our gate not being ready and that they have no idea how long it would be. After that great 20 minute savings we arrived at the gate more than 20 minutes late. 40 minutes of sitting on the ground watching 777s arrive after us and pull up to their gate. Nothing to do except wonder about how long the lines at customs would be by the time I got there.

Is it just me or does it seem like my gates are always at the furthest possible end of the terminal?

Keba

With CO & Jet Blue adding more flights congestion will only get worse at EWR.

It seems to be a problem in many cities. Just flood the airports with RJs too.

I was once the cause...
 

...Sometimes when they shuffle gates it makes things worse...

One time at IAH we arrived late after some kind of minor flight delay, to find that our newly assigned gate (I guess our original gate had been switched before we arrived) was occupied by another plane. The pilot came on and said that that plane was waiting for connecting passengers, and would be moving shortly. Based on the in-flight gate information (you know where the flight attendant rattles off a list of connections over the PA system)--and what I later confirmed when we finally did get to the terminal, it was the flight I was supposed to be connecting to...

...so, I was in the twilight-zone like circulum of "causing" my own gate wait...(Eventually they gave up waiting for me, I was treated as a misconnect, the plane backed out, so we could pull in, so I could be rebooked...)

I haven't had the waiting for gate issue at EWR, but has happend quite a few times at IAH. Everytime we get ahead of schedule into IAH we have to wait for a gate, and then most of the time a crew to guide the bird in. A few times at EWR we've had to wait for crews.

Matt

Cigarman, this is worth mentioning to Larry!
 

This happens all too often at EWR, especially on the SNA-EWR flight or LAX-EWR where we arrive very early due to those strong tailwinds.

Are the ground crews notified BEFORE the plane lands that the flight will be early?

This would seem something the airlines best interest to manage better. Planes sitting on the tarmac burn fuel. Probably could save more on managing this better then eliminating say...Peanuts???

I always get frustrate when I am on one of those tight connects and now the capatins says we are early and I am thinking I can make it to the PC for a 15 minutes of so. And then end up spirinting to my gate instead...