Rant About Arriving Flights Waiting for Gates
Mar 17, 2019, 2:38 pm
#1
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Rant About Arriving Flights Waiting for Gates
Happened to me enough times (including me sitting on a flight while writing this post) where a flight lands early or on time and “our gate” is occupied, requiring a long wait. Even more frustrating you look outside your window and see empty gates at the terminal you’re parking at (and I know enough about airline operations to know that those gates are already “assigned”).
Why is this country so awful with gate space and getting passengers off the plane quickly? In Europe and some other countries, they use remote gates to get you off if a hard stand is not available. Here in the US, you’re screwed until your one and only gate opens.
I wouldn’t even be upset by it if there was bad weather/other uncontrollable IRROPS or a flight arrives very early but this is happening on clear weather days on on time flights. You’re telling me our gate wouldn’t be available anyway?
Why is this country so awful with gate space and getting passengers off the plane quickly? In Europe and some other countries, they use remote gates to get you off if a hard stand is not available. Here in the US, you’re screwed until your one and only gate opens.
I wouldn’t even be upset by it if there was bad weather/other uncontrollable IRROPS or a flight arrives very early but this is happening on clear weather days on on time flights. You’re telling me our gate wouldn’t be available anyway?
Mar 17, 2019, 2:49 pm
#2
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one of my latest flights, the gate was occupied when we arrived. After a while the plane took off, and then we still couldn't gate because there was no one to receive the plane I was on....so that was another while.
Mar 17, 2019, 7:41 pm
#3
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Hard to answer in completely without knowing airport but there are a couples reasons this can legitimately occur in the US
1) The empty gates are assigned (as you note) or may not even be owned by your airline -- so it's a no go even if that airline isn't expecting a flight for a couple hours
2) Airport may not have the infrastructure to bus you in from a hard stand (my local airport, RDU, has no buses airside so would require some logistical and operational changes to enact)
I believe (unless things have changed) many airlines pay both pilots and FAs based on flight time -- push back until they park at the gate-- not block time. So one would think airlines aren't doing this because they want to stick it to passenger -- they save money getting you into the gate early (crew costs, fuel savings, lower risk of IRROPs and misconnects, lower risk of baggage misconnects, etc.)
1) The empty gates are assigned (as you note) or may not even be owned by your airline -- so it's a no go even if that airline isn't expecting a flight for a couple hours
2) Airport may not have the infrastructure to bus you in from a hard stand (my local airport, RDU, has no buses airside so would require some logistical and operational changes to enact)
I believe (unless things have changed) many airlines pay both pilots and FAs based on flight time -- push back until they park at the gate-- not block time. So one would think airlines aren't doing this because they want to stick it to passenger -- they save money getting you into the gate early (crew costs, fuel savings, lower risk of IRROPs and misconnects, lower risk of baggage misconnects, etc.)
Mar 17, 2019, 8:13 pm
#4
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All it takes is one or two flights to get a mechanical delay and boom! Your gate is occupied. I remember one instance where we were suppose to go from the hub to a small airport but that small airport was socked in with fog. Legally we couldn't depart for that airport until the visibility came up at the destination. Departing meant leaving the gate and it was a FAR violation to do so. But operations needed the gate for an arrival, so they had to sit and wait. In the end, yeah. More gates are needed. Sometimes open gates are meant for only certain type of aircraft too. So they have to be left open. Otherwise the operation gets screwed up even worse. So yeah, just about every big hub needs gates. With airlines adding more and more non-stops, this is bound to be a problem.
Mar 18, 2019, 12:33 am
#5
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Happened to me enough times (including me sitting on a flight while writing this post) where a flight lands early or on time and “our gate” is occupied, requiring a long wait. Even more frustrating you look outside your window and see empty gates at the terminal you’re parking at (and I know enough about airline operations to know that those gates are already “assigned”).
Why is this country so awful with gate space and getting passengers off the plane quickly? In Europe and some other countries, they use remote gates to get you off if a hard stand is not available. Here in the US, you’re screwed until your one and only gate opens.
I wouldn’t even be upset by it if there was bad weather/other uncontrollable IRROPS or a flight arrives very early but this is happening on clear weather days on on time flights. You’re telling me our gate wouldn’t be available anyway?
Why is this country so awful with gate space and getting passengers off the plane quickly? In Europe and some other countries, they use remote gates to get you off if a hard stand is not available. Here in the US, you’re screwed until your one and only gate opens.
I wouldn’t even be upset by it if there was bad weather/other uncontrollable IRROPS or a flight arrives very early but this is happening on clear weather days on on time flights. You’re telling me our gate wouldn’t be available anyway?
Mar 18, 2019, 2:41 pm
#6
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This is my first thought. If DFW (the place where this always seems to happen) started routinely using bus gates, we'd have a 50-page rant thread about it on the AA board.
Mar 18, 2019, 3:39 pm
#9
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Hard to answer in completely without knowing airport but there are a couples reasons this can legitimately occur in the US
1) The empty gates are assigned (as you note) or may not even be owned by your airline -- so it's a no go even if that airline isn't expecting a flight for a couple hours
2) Airport may not have the infrastructure to bus you in from a hard stand (my local airport, RDU, has no buses airside so would require some logistical and operational changes to enact)
I believe (unless things have changed) many airlines pay both pilots and FAs based on flight time -- push back until they park at the gate-- not block time. So one would think airlines aren't doing this because they want to stick it to passenger -- they save money getting you into the gate early (crew costs, fuel savings, lower risk of IRROPs and misconnects, lower risk of baggage misconnects, etc.)
1) The empty gates are assigned (as you note) or may not even be owned by your airline -- so it's a no go even if that airline isn't expecting a flight for a couple hours
2) Airport may not have the infrastructure to bus you in from a hard stand (my local airport, RDU, has no buses airside so would require some logistical and operational changes to enact)
I believe (unless things have changed) many airlines pay both pilots and FAs based on flight time -- push back until they park at the gate-- not block time. So one would think airlines aren't doing this because they want to stick it to passenger -- they save money getting you into the gate early (crew costs, fuel savings, lower risk of IRROPs and misconnects, lower risk of baggage misconnects, etc.)
Mar 19, 2019, 8:16 am
#10
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OP is venting about the U.S. (I'm going to go ahead and assume that based on the 3 U.S. airline memberships and nothing else.)
It's one of those things that is super-annoying when it happens, but in the grand scheme of things involves less total time over the course of 100s of flights than using bus gates. I have a lot of 10-minute waits when the flight has arrived 30 minutes early. Once or twice a year, there's a frustrating wait when the flight is already late. I can't recall a waiting-for-gate situation ever causing me a misconnect when the flight landed on time.
It's one of those things that is super-annoying when it happens, but in the grand scheme of things involves less total time over the course of 100s of flights than using bus gates. I have a lot of 10-minute waits when the flight has arrived 30 minutes early. Once or twice a year, there's a frustrating wait when the flight is already late. I can't recall a waiting-for-gate situation ever causing me a misconnect when the flight landed on time.
Mar 19, 2019, 8:43 am
#11
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A particular gate can't accept every type of aircraft. The gates you see open may not be able to accept your airplane type and/or they are one of the few gates that can accept other types, i.e. widebodies, which will be arriving soon. There's also equipment issues with gates where the gate's GPU (ground power) or PC Air (pre-conditioned air) could be down so you can't park an airplane with inoperative APU there, etc., which adds complexity to the situation.
It's a big jigsaw puzzle and, at least at my airline, there is a person at each hub whose only job it is to control the gate assignments. I sat behind the gate controller for a few minutes at one of our hubs a few months ago. She was non-stop coordinating gates, gate swaps, and other gate-related issues.
The real problem is that many hub airports are behind demand in their gate construction. Many of them have projects either ongoing or in the planning stages to add additional gates.
It's a big jigsaw puzzle and, at least at my airline, there is a person at each hub whose only job it is to control the gate assignments. I sat behind the gate controller for a few minutes at one of our hubs a few months ago. She was non-stop coordinating gates, gate swaps, and other gate-related issues.
The real problem is that many hub airports are behind demand in their gate construction. Many of them have projects either ongoing or in the planning stages to add additional gates.
Mar 19, 2019, 9:47 am
#12
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Early arrival can also mean that the ground staff aren't ready to receive the aircraft because they're usually tightly aligned to the schedule with little slack or abundance of spare staff to accommodate early arrivals.
It seems that a lot of people don't realise that an early arrival is just as disruptive (potentially more so) to airport ops as a late one.
If airlines were more focussed to arriving on time, rather than departing on time, I suspect this type of issue would be alleviated quite significantly.
It seems that a lot of people don't realise that an early arrival is just as disruptive (potentially more so) to airport ops as a late one.
If airlines were more focussed to arriving on time, rather than departing on time, I suspect this type of issue would be alleviated quite significantly.