What is an irrop?
 

Apologies if this is somewhere else. Tried Google, the FT Glossary, and the FT search with no real luck.

What exactly is an irrop? What does it mean and how does it affect me?

irrop = irregular operations

It's when things don't go as scheduled due to maintenance or weather issues.

Thanks. So how does it affect a pax? Anything I can do to make an irrop easier on you when it happens?

Your flight is delayed or cancelled, potentially missing a connection. Or you are now flying out two days later because all the other flights are full.
Status helps. As does patience. So does having airline phone numbers so you can start making calls while waiting in line to be rebooked (if necessary). Is there any advantage to waiting at the end of that long line to see an agent? might provide some insight...

Now the question is: how is it pronounced? I always though it was like EAR op, but the other day on airtran the CS agent told another one to long i ROP me onto the flight I wanted to get on.

EAR op or i ROP?

I've always heard EAR-op (IRRegular OPeratons) when talking to other FTers. Never heard EYE-rop (it's not EYEregular OPerations :D).

I've found that in any industry, industry insiders have their own jargon separate from outsiders. In other words, airline employees and airline travelers are often two groups separated by a common language. ;)

Do maintenance problems count? I've always thought of "Irrops" as referring to widespread problems...a blizzard, ATC issues, etc. An isolated mechanical delay/cancellation, while inconvenient, does not really strike me as rising to the level of "irrops". A single cancellation is much different than an entire hub suffering from 2+ hour delays (for example).

I consider anything outside of completing the flight within its scheduled timeframe (give or take a certain window) is an irrops. If mainetenance cancels your flight, it's most certainly an irrop in my book, as that was something that wasn't planned to occur by the airline at all and adversely affected the customer.

I have always been a fan of eye-r-op; it could be from my many years IRC'ing and say IRCop as eye-r-see-op :)

I've always said it as EYE-Rop, versus EAR-Rop. But thats just me, everyone has their only little way of doing things.

I've always heard it as EYE-ROPS and I work in/for the airline/airport industry.

Count me as someone who has always thought of it as EAR-rop. As someone mentioned, that's based on the fact that it's short for IRRegular OPerations, so I just assume that the pronunciation from the words would carry over.

And I agree with the poster who said an IRROP would be anything that interrupts any flight (except for "routine" minor delays). I guess the hallmark for me is the need to take different flights from those scheduled, and/or getting to my destination more than a couple hours after my scheduled arrival.

I've always heard IRR-ops (generally in the plural, even if only one flight is affected) from airline personnel. Never EYE-rops.

Maybe it's like IRR-ak or EYE-rak. IRR-ack (or irr-ACK) is correct, at least to Iraqis, but that doesn't stop lots of Yanks from saying EYE-rack. Might have something to do with what fits best with the overall speech patterns they're used to.

Maybe a duel would help settle this, we just need one volunteer to represent each group :p

What, frequent flyer cards at ten paces? First to give the other one a paper cut wins?

:P