Flight cancelled due to ATC
Nov 29, 2011, 9:43 am
#1
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Flight cancelled due to ATC
Sunday night returning home from Thanksgiving my flight from HPN-ORD was cancelled due to ATC. Has anyone ever had this happen? I have had delays, but never a cancellation from ATC.
As it was the last flight of the day I was out of luck on United, but they were able to route me in US Airways with a connection through Philly. That flight was delayed and when it was all said and done I got home at 5am - needing to sleep made me miss half a day of work. Can or should I get anything from United on this?
As it was the last flight of the day I was out of luck on United, but they were able to route me in US Airways with a connection through Philly. That flight was delayed and when it was all said and done I got home at 5am - needing to sleep made me miss half a day of work. Can or should I get anything from United on this?
Nov 29, 2011, 9:48 am
#2
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certain airports have restrictions as to hours aircrafts can takeoff and land due to proximity to cities. perhaps it was delayed to the point where the departure would past the allowed duration of airport operation so they had to cancel it.
Nov 29, 2011, 9:48 am
#3
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Sunday night returning home from Thanksgiving my flight from HPN-ORD was cancelled due to ATC. Has anyone ever had this happen? I have had delays, but never a cancellation from ATC.
As it was the last flight of the day I was out of luck on United, but they were able to route me in US Airways with a connection through Philly. That flight was delayed and when it was all said and done I got home at 5am - needing to sleep made me miss half a day of work. Can or should I get anything from United on this?
As it was the last flight of the day I was out of luck on United, but they were able to route me in US Airways with a connection through Philly. That flight was delayed and when it was all said and done I got home at 5am - needing to sleep made me miss half a day of work. Can or should I get anything from United on this?
"If UA had done ________, I would have arrived on time and not arrived home at 5 AM and chosen to sleep through work."
Nov 29, 2011, 9:53 am
#4
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There will be tons of ATC cncls today at ORD with sustained winds at 25 knots gusting to 45-50. ATC can be many reasons from ATC computer failures to reduced visability, to high winds. Usually, the destination's airport has either a weather or technical limitation that reduces the number of takeoffs and/or landings per hour, causing flights to back up, and eventually, some cncl.
I would expect any airline in such a situation to rebook me on the next available flight(s).
I would expect any airline in such a situation to rebook me on the next available flight(s).
Nov 29, 2011, 9:54 am
#5
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I guess I was just asking if ATC can actually cancel a flight and not merely delay it, or if this is some way for UA to cover their butts.
Nov 29, 2011, 10:00 am
#6
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Not sure. I have just never heard of an ATC cancellation before. I didn't know that ATC could actually cancel flights. If the flight would have been delayed instead of cancelled I would have gotten home a lot earlier b/c I would not have had a connection.
I guess I was just asking if ATC can actually cancel a flight and not merely delay it, or if this is some way for UA to cover their butts.
I guess I was just asking if ATC can actually cancel a flight and not merely delay it, or if this is some way for UA to cover their butts.
For example, if ATC delayed the flight 8 hours, at which point the flight would land at 3 AM and the pilots would run out of duty time, then UA would cancel the flight and (rightfully) blame ATC.
Nov 29, 2011, 10:01 am
#7
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Nov 29, 2011, 10:04 am
#8
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Nov 29, 2011, 10:06 am
#9
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Was any of the later flights to/from ORD? The ATC problem was at ORD.@:-) If ATC delayed ORD-HPN by 4+ hours, then both ORD-HPN and HPN-ORD had to be cancelled.
Nov 29, 2011, 10:10 am
#10
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Nov 29, 2011, 10:17 am
#11
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The answer to this question is NO, ATC cannot "cancel" a flight, barring extreme circumstances. But even in those extreme cases, they cannot per se cancel it, just prevent it from leaving the gate/departing. In some sense, this is a just a semantic distinction, as cancellation is an airline schedule-related decision. It's just another way for UA to say that weather/volume led to delays at such a level that they thought it was better just to cancel.
Nov 29, 2011, 11:21 am
#12
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The answer to this question is NO, ATC cannot "cancel" a flight, barring extreme circumstances. But even in those extreme cases, they cannot per se cancel it, just prevent it from leaving the gate/departing. In some sense, this is a just a semantic distinction, as cancellation is an airline schedule-related decision. It's just another way for UA to say that weather/volume led to delays at such a level that they thought it was better just to cancel.
It's true that ATC doesn't cancel the flight. UA could theoretically leave the flight on the schedule in perpetuity, but the aircraft doesn't so much as push from the gate until ATC says it's OK to do so.
Nov 29, 2011, 1:10 pm
#13
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If you look at the Flight Status for today's ORD-DCA flights, four are shown as cancelled due to ATC.
Nov 29, 2011, 1:17 pm
#14
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HPN was fairly backed up on Sunday. I was surprised to see it on the list of Ground Delay program (http://fly.faa.gov/ois)s; that's fairly unusual for HPN. A quick glance on flightaware showed a long line of private jets bound for Westchester that day. It could have been related to the Thanksgiving holiday. Teterboro was also backed up that day.
Nov 29, 2011, 1:22 pm
#15
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HPN was fairly backed up on Sunday. I was surprised to see it on the list of Ground Delay program (http://fly.faa.gov/ois)s; that's fairly unusual for HPN. A quick glance on flightaware showed a long line of private jets bound for Westchester that day. It could have been related to the Thanksgiving holiday. Teterboro was also backed up that day.