vinnmann

So I'm in PNS going to ATL then on to MCO tonight. DL delays the 6:55PM PNS-ATL leg until 5:30AM tomorrow morning and say it is due to weather. There are planes taking off and landing in both ATL and PNS. I'm confused. Can anyone help clarify why the flight is essentially cancelled due to weather if the departing and arrival airports are operaional?

TTT

I'm guessing your crew is stuck somewhere. The aircraft is in ATL.

Cory6188

It is strange, though. I checked the map at fly.faa.gov, and the entire thing is green except for EWR, which is yellow (and it seems to be about half the time, anyway). Even on flightaware.com, the only airports listed with a delay are in Australia and EWR (only at 23 mins).

sydneyracquelle

You could drive from Pensacola to Orlando in 5-6 hours.

vinnmann

That may be accurate. However, is crew being available a weather issue? Also, they boarded the incoming flight ATL-PNS and then cancelled it. I cannot believe they planned on having a new crew for the ATL-PNS-ATL legs for this aircraft as it was the last 2 flights for that aircraft for the day. I'm guessing the crew at a minimum would have been scheduled for the end of the day's flights for the aircraft of ATL-ECP-ATL-PNS-ATL.

vinnmann

Not after my work got done early and I had a few cocktails at the airport bar. I was planning to Uber from MCO to my home.

TTT

Depends - if the crew was delayed by weather then yes.

cmd320

Fair enough, but then that isn’t weather, that’s crew time-out which is the airline’s fault.

vinnmann

I agree. Not particular to my personal situation,but it brings up the question of other flights. If I'm scheduled ATL-MCO and my incoming SLC-ATL aircraft is delayed due to a blizzard in SLC, is my flight considered a weather delay?

Just to confirm, I did not start this thread with a bit+chy intention. Personally, I'm fine, have a hotel and will simply get home later than expected. I just don't get how airlines can just say "weather" and get off the hook.

After all this, I am wondering what really constitutes a weather delay. An airline can say incoming aircraft was delayed by weather.

TTT

IME, an airline will quantify anything as weather if the root cause was the result of weather.

Not saying I agree with it but we've all seen them do it.

GagaPilot

Airline Captain here:

Sounds like to me that the TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast) dropped below legal minimums in PNS. This makes sense if they boarded the inbound ATL-PNS, then subsequently cancelled it. If the forecasted visibility at the time of arrival is not legal, the flight can not launch. In certain circumstances if the forecasted visibility is below minimums for only a "tempo" (meaning temporarily) then the flight can be dispatched with a second alternate, however based on the fog in NW Florida yesterday I highly doubt other airports were viable.

I used to live in ECP (about 75 miles east of PNS) and this happened a few times a year. I did a quick search and I think the same thing happened to TLH yesterday as well.

So bottomline, I would classify this as weather... not crew.

pfreet

It might actually be a whether delay. It depends on whether the crew shows up or not.

Austin787

IMO, airlines tend to go to great lengths to blame anything on weather. There may be several contributing causes to a delay, but if weather has any part (even if small) the airlines code the entire delay on weather. I remember a few years ago Delta had an IT outage which caused many flights to be cancelled, yet Delta blamed the cancellations on thunderstorms which occurred days before the IT outage.

HkCaGu

The weather at PNS cleared up quickly after 6 pm CST. Actually it was worse with the fog and the flights actually arrived this morning! It sounds like a crew problem to me.