Being on a delayed flight is extremely frustrating and if this has ever happened to you, you might be wondering why. You rarely get much information from the airline, so what are the main reasons for flights being delayed?
There are many reasons that a flight may be delayed, but the top ones include adverse weather, bird strikes, mechanical issues, connecting passengers, waiting for crew members, and problems with getting the plane ready. There are also other potential problems, like baggage loading and late aircraft.
It won’t surprise you that adverse weather is a particularly common reason for a plane to take off late. It doesn’t even need to be a heavy storm or wild weather to create a delay; something as minor as poor visibility can make it unsafe for the pilot to take off.
The standards for safe weather are set by the airport, but most planes will not take off if there is a storm, strong winds, blizzards, fog, etc. Adverse weather delays are less common than you might expect because planes are designed to handle bad weather well, but these are often given as a reason for a delay.
This is because they offer a convenient and simple explanation, and adverse weather is beyond the airline’s control, so it is less likely to result in angry passengers. You may therefore be told that a delay is due to adverse weather even if something else is causing it.
Bird strikes may sound like a strange issue, but a bird hitting a plane happens most frequently during takeoff or landing, and it can cause damage to the aircraft. Certain procedures have to be followed after a strike to ensure that the plane is safe for its next journey, and this can cause delays for the flight.
After a bird strike, the airline must thoroughly check the plane for damage, which slows down the preparation for the next flight, resulting in a delayed takeoff. If this happens, you may be informed of the strike, or you may be given another reason for the delay.
You will not be entitled to compensation if your plane is delayed for this reason, because it is considered to be beyond the airline’s control. As long as they have followed their procedures correctly, you won’t be compensated.
Every time a plane is preparing for takeoff, it needs to be checked all over for mechanical issues. This is critical for safety and is a standard part of procedure for all airlines. However, when an issue is found, the time needed to fix it often results in a delay.
Often, mechanical issues are minor and do not actually pose a threat to the passengers, but a repair will still be needed, and airlines must not overlook this. Issues can relate to things like the fan blades, the water draining system, or contamination of the air conditioning.
Even a non-serious issue will need to be corrected before the plane takes flight again, so if you’re being held up, it may be due to a technical problem on the aircraft. You can get compensation if this is responsible for the delay.
As soon as the problem has been corrected, the plane should be cleared for flight, but mechanical issues can still take a few hours to be resolved in some cases.
There are some situations in which a plane will wait for connecting passengers who have been delayed, although this isn’t the norm. Generally, if passengers are late for a flight, they will have to wait for the next one, but sometimes, the plane will wait.
In general, this happens only if the other passengers on the plane will not miss connections themselves as a result of the delay.
In some cases, it will occur because the luggage of the passengers who are late has already been put onto the plane, and the calculated unloading time is greater than the calculated expected time for them to board. The plane will be on its way faster if the passengers are allowed to board, so it makes sense to wait.
Connecting passengers is therefore a fairly rare reason for a plane to be delayed, but it does happen.
Your flight must have a certain number of crew members to look after the passengers on the plane, so if it is short of crew, it won’t be going anywhere. You will not even be allowed onto the plane until the crew quota has been met.
That means you can easily be delayed by a lack of crew members. This may be because staff members are arriving on a different flight that has been delayed.
Many airlines get around this issue by having additional crew members ready to minimize the risk of crew shortages delaying a flight, but smaller airlines may not have this, and even larger ones may suffer from crew shortages at times.
If your crew members are on a flight that has been delayed, it can take hours before your own flight is ready to leave. This can be pretty frustrating.
As well as being checked for mechanical faults, your plane needs to be made ready for passengers in other ways, such as cleaning, restocking of fuel, and the loading of food. Generally, these processes are done quickly because the airline wants the plane in the air as much as possible.
However, sometimes the staff responsible for these tasks will run into issues, and this could cause a delay. Catering tends to be provided by a third party, so if there are problems on their end, it can have an impact upon the flight.
The plane won’t leave until it has the promised catering on board, and obviously will not leave until it has been fully refueled, so any hiccups in these processes will cause delays.
In some cases, baggage loading could be the cause of a delay. This isn’t as simple as just grabbing bags and slinging them into the aircraft’s hold; most airlines have staff trained in how to handle bags safely. If someone is sick or the airline is short-staffed, it’s easy for them to get behind with the loading process.