ExpressJet Flight Time Estimates - Not an Exact Science...
 

One thing I have found cool about pmUA is the landing time estimate is frequently exact to the minute. Sometimes, minor revisions occur in-flight but they are pretty accurate.

Yesterday, I was waiting for a delayed incoming ERJ145 from IAH iN FL. The website gave the ETA at the gate as 19:25 - this even after the plane was in the air for a while. The gate agent said "a lot of the time, they show up early". I thought she was just trying to keep us around. Then the plane actually showed up before 19:00!

I am curious - is this an ExpressJet thing? A regional thing for all the RJ operators? A pmCO thing?

I fly EWR-YQB in an ExpressJet ERJ-145 about 12 times a year round trip.

Flight times are routinely 20-30 minutes shorter than the schedule.

My impression is that the schedules for these flights have the most "pad," because they are the prioritized to be first to be delayed in case of weather.

It's also becoming even more padded on some routes thanks to refleeting. Anytime we take over a route formerly operated by a Skywest CRJ, we generally arrive ~30 minutes early. We regularly land 40 minutes early on a lot of cross-country routes into Denver. Those Skywest guys fly slow :P

I know the schedule time is padded but the strange thing is the estimated gate arrival time once the plane is in the air is still way off.

I think the larger jets have data links that updates the position and wheels up times with the computer. Maybe the regional jets don't do it and they don't update this any other way?

That's very possible.

99% of my flying on UaCo is on PMCO ExpressJet RJ's and I can tell you the notifications and updates for delays are essentially non-existent.

For example, it's routine for a flight departure to be listed as "on time" (on all media, website, pda site, airport monitors) even after it has been delayed for hours.

I have to assume it's an ExpressJet issue, but it's troubling because RJ's represent over half of all domestic departures daily in the system.

Its a communication problem, it seems, between XJT and UniCal. My internal website will show a delay, but the boards won't show it. Somewhere between dispatch and whatever updates delays, the ball gets dropped.

That being said, an estimated time of departure is a number pulled out of thin air until the inbound aircraft is airborne.

The disconnect between XJT and UaCo really needs to get addressed. It makes flying XJT very uncertain.

For whatever reason, when I fly DL's RJ I never have these problems, the notifications and communication are excellent.

So, you are an ExpressJet employee? Are XJT and UniCal system names or just company names?

In this situation, I was talking about the gate arrival time of the inbound. Of course, the outbound time was wrong too since the inbound was wrong.

I am curious on how the FLIFO gets updated among the systems - both internal within the airline/regional operators and external with SHARES and the website.

Thanks.

ExpressJet Flight Time Estimates - Not an Exact Science...
 

I have noticed that sometimes you arrive a lot earlier. However, the last two expressjet I arrived late due to inbound aircraft and one due to maintenance. Have one in a few days so hopefully I'll arrive really early. The other thing I have noticed is that expressjet flights have a very short turn time like 15 mins in some cases, so they better arrive early! :D