swampwiz

NOTE: For those who recall a recent post about me explaining AMS-ATL, that flight got delayed (canceled?) , with a final arrival time @ MSY at freaking 00:30, and so I was able to route through JFK to get in at 21:59.)

Anyway, it's always been my experience that this is barely typically a 2-1/4 flight, if that. Delta wants 1-1/4 hr padding? I should say that the new terminal @ MSY is opening on Nov 6. I could understand with the confusion with the night before (i.e., the move between terminals will go overnight) and the first few days or weeks, so maybe Delta has been padding this, not knowing exactly when the new terminal would start operating?

As for JFK, it wasn't as painful as the last time I went through here. There seems to be a rail system, but of course, I still had to do some walking outside to get Terminal 2.

tstauck

United EWR-MSY lists theirs at 3:33 min. So this doesn't seem unreasonable.

KDCAflyer

JFK flights are usually heavily-padded. I've experienced hour-long taxi times (#20+ for departure), so it's not unreasonable.

MSPeconomist

Is there some current runway construction at JFK? That would lead to delays.

GW McLintock

I've flown to MSY many times from JFK and it's usually about 2.5 in the air. None of this travel was on Delta. An hour pad for JFK is a bit high but in the grand scheme doesn't seem unreasonable.

-J.

ryw

Maybe it's possible that they expect strong headwinds on this route at this time of the year?
From EWR and JFK, Delta, Jetblue, and United all look like they're allowing about 3:15-3:30 for the flight

manacit

I don't understand why people get frustrated at schedule padding -- you don't give your ETA from the time you get on the highway to your first exit, but from door-to-door. This is nothing different. JFK and the airspace in the NE is always crowded, there's always a long line for departure, it's nothing new.

If Delta didn't think they would use that hour-and-change sitting at JFK or at MSY, they wouldn't schedule it. This way, you can know what to expect. It'll probably even be right.

indufan

I arrived at JFK one day and the FA announced that we were one hour early. I said to my seatmate, well, we aren't there yet. We arrived exactly on time.

PurdueFlyer

Because its FT! There's always a conspiracy.


There are entire departments at every major airline devoted solely to block-time analysis. The flights are built in the network schedule for what they statistically take. The anti-padding crowd loves to act like its only done to "pad the DOT stats," but ignores the waste of resources that cumulatively occurs if you over-pad on every leg. Planes arrive too early, which then occupies gates at congested airports for longer than anticipated. And an airplane on the ground doesn't make money. Plus, crews can't be scheduled efficiently, and once the crew pairing is built, they get paid for that whole duty period even if it actually takes less time to fly it. I'm sure Ed would rather spend the money elsewhere than on pilot block hours that won't actually be spent operating the jet.

obscure2k

My recent MSY/LAX was just about the same. I don't see the problem

ATOBTTR

JFK-MSY is 1,182 miles per GCMap. To do that in 2 hr 15 min means traveling at an average of 525 mph (right around cruise speed when adjusting from KCAS to mph), and that doesn’t include taxi time on either end or flying at slower speeds during climb out or during descent and approach and also doesn’t account for adjusting airspeed for headwinds or tailwinds, for which JFK-MSY is more likely to encounter headwinds than tailwinds.

Fraser

31R/13L is closed for construction leading to some fairly epic taxi times these past few months.

I fly JFK-CLT with some regularity and my flight the other week (a 7pm departure) was listed at 2hr 45mins for 522 miles.

swampwiz

OK, it ended up taking about 2:50 from gate departure to touchdown. The attendant said that they "do not have to wait on the tarmac". It also seemed to be a bit roundabout; perhaps there was some bad weather along the geodesic. Got to experience the old MSY terminal one last time; Concourse D is so much better than the other ones.

swampwiz

I remember going SVO-JFK, and yes, it took about an hour to taxi from touchdown to arrival at the gate. Something that is interesting with Russian pax is that they clap when the aircraft touches down.

MSYtoJFKagain

As my name would imply, I've flown the route 300+ times.

Block time has been from 3 to 3:30 as far back as I can remember, especially in the summer/fall when huge detours are common due to WX.

The flight time is usually 2:30-3:00 on the way down and about 10-15 minutes faster on the way up.
I've had 2 4+ hour flights and one nearly sub 2 hour flight in the last few years

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...853Z/KJFK/KMSY - 4 hour flight last week
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...140Z/KJFK/KMSY - 2.25 hour flight in October