why does united airlines delay people but never in summer?

Question

why does united airlines delay people in winter and not in summer

Answer 1

Weather related delays can ripple through the whole system as some flights are delayed for local weather or equipment or mechanical or de-icing reasons but those planes were to be used for other flights that day.

Also, as visibility and braking distance are worsened in the winter weather, greater spacing is required at some airports such that they can't handle as many planes per hour.

Of course some delays happen in summer too. I've seen 200 planes taxing a circuitous route at Chicago (many were United planes) getting off many hours late after severe summer thunderstorms.

I can't prove it, but I think I noticed some carriers having "mechanical difficulties" on less-than-full flights when the next one or two flights can accomodate everyone. Why fly 3 planes when 2 would do? So that would happen less during busy summer travel months. Pisses me off when I think I see it happening. There is a different "feel" to it - it is less chaotic and not "we'll-update-you-when-we-know-more". Just, "The 1:30 pm flight is cancelled due to (------) and we'll be putting you on the 4 pm flight."

Answer 2

Their 2 main hubs Chicago and Denver tend to get a lot of snow in the winter. That is the big reason. Because the flights are delayed in Chicago and Denver, it spreads to other cities so all flights get delayed leaving and coming in.

Here in Cincinnati, United will push the aircraft out on-time but then the pilots park the aircraft on the taxiway and we just sit there for around 20 minutes because O'Hare or the United gate is not ready for us. It happens pretty much all the time. I am always seeing a United Airlines plane parked on the tarmac for 15-20 minutes before it takes off. This is not just during the winter but a year-round ritual. The reason why they do that is so they can say their on-time performance is good. The airline's on-time performance does not measure how long you sit on the runway but whether or not the aircraft is pushed out of the gate within 15 minutes of scheduled departure time.

Answer 3

I fly for United Airlines. There are lots of different reasons for delays. Winter time is mostly due to weather (snow, ice, or low clouds) or "flow." Flow control is a delay that the Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) put on the airlines to reduce the number of Aircraft flying to a particular airport. This can be due to weather, radar problems, runway closed, or traffic saturation. Large airports like Chicago tend to get more delays because they run at near max capacity and when something slows it down, ATC starts to add flow control.

In my experence, there is an equal number of delays in the summer and winter. Just for different kinds of weather.

To answer the guy who lives in Cincinnati, the reason you see United aircraft have to sit for 15min or so every time is that ATC has to find a "slot" in the air traffic going to Chicago. It is very common for airports close (less than 200 miles) to Chicago to have to wait a bit for a slot. This does affect our ontime rating because it's based on arriving at your destanation with 15min, not leaving within 15.

As far as airlines canceling flights beacuse they can put the passengers on a later flight, I've never seen it. One reason, the aircraft have to be in place for the schedule to work. If you keep an aircraft somewhere due to a canceled flight, they have to use a spair, if they have one, to keep the schedule working. Most of the time we have no spair aircraft. Now after saying all that, I have not seen an airplane less than 3/4 full in the last year. Load factors are running in the 80% area.

Hope this helps answer some questions.

Answer 4

Weather, for most airlines. Either the destination airport cannot land flights (so why bother taking off), or the departure airport cannot safely let planes leave.

Sometimes, the plane you are leaving on has not yet arrived from its previous leg, so there is no plane to board.

Of course, mechanical problems will delay a flight, and just like any other type of vehicle, inclement weather causes more breakdowns.

Answer 5

WOW Sweetie....Isn't it obvious.... weather conditions?

Answer 6

IT SNOWS IN THE WINTER...DUH