Flight Delayed? Know the Possible Reasons for Flight Delay
Flight Delayed? Know the Possible Reasons for Flight Delay
You are about to fly and suddenly the news breaks out – “Your flight is delayed. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
Has it ever happened to you? If yes, then you might be knowing the level of frustration at that very moment and all you can do it is to curse the airline.
So, for your convenience, we have assembled some of the most common reasons because of which flights gets delayed.
ATC – Air Traffic Control
The aviation sector witnessed the growth of air passengers by 18.6 percent between January and December 2018, which carried almost 138.9 million passengers as compared to 117.1 million in the year 2017. The growth in air passenger reflects in the airlines in the sky carrying a lot of passengers at a time which automatically creates air traffic.
A lot of limitations and regulations are seen in the longer flights, because they frequently change routes at the last moment due to weather conditions and sometimes jet streams. Infrastructure again is another issue because there are many areas that don’t get radar coverage which consumes a lot of time in landings and take offs which eventually lead to delays of other flights.
In case, you are thinking about flight delay compensation then, let me tell you there is no compensation if your flight is delayed or cancelled because of air traffic.
Severe Weather Conditions
We know that Air Passenger Regulations vary from country to country which is usually determined by the national regulatory bodies such as Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India, Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in the US.
Severe weather conditions are frequently seen as one of the main reasons of flight delays because it is unpredictable and does not happen to be optimal. When we talk about severe weather conditions, we mean hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, heavy rainfall and so on.
It happens many times that airlines claim bad weather as the reason for flight delay, which sometimes is not the actual reason. If you want to know the actual reality, we need a thing called “METAR” reports. The said reports have all the information about the temperature, dew, wind direction, barometric pressure and almost everything.
Technical Issues
You might hate this one for the right reasons. It is usually seen flights are getting delayed due to technical issues that needs instant attention. If it will be taken care of, there will be sheer risk to the passengers.
Following are the common issues that occur:
- Issues in water draining system
- Aircraft Parking
- Fan Blades
- Fuel
- Air Conditioning system
As per the EU 261/2004 Regulation, passengers are entitled to get compensation if any of the malfunction happens in the aircraft that needs instant attention.
Strikes
Strikes can happen anywhere, anytime because of the unfulfilled demands of the staff or some negotiations with their boss. Unlike weather conditions, it is less frequent and have minimal effect on the airlines’ expenses.
For instance – in September 2019, British Airways pilots were on strike for 48 hours which caused suffering to thousands of passengers.
Since strike comes under an extraordinary circumstance so, no compensation will be offered for flight delay, but it also has exceptions. If aircraft got disrupted before the strike period, then you can get compensation for the same.
Cargo
Commercial flights have much more things to carry other than passengers and their luggage. I am saying so because cargo is one of the other elements that is displaced along with passengers on a regular basis. In fact, 5 – 10 % of total revenue is shared by the transportation of cargo.
The most relevant example for this is the US Postal Service that leases cargo space on 15,000 out of the 25,000 commercial passenger flights. As an air passenger, you’d know every time delayed flights are not caused due to technical glitches or bad weather but can be a result of delayed freight as well. Let me remind you again, I’m not talking about the 4 or 5 hours delays here.
Security clearance
Let me take you to the different time-consuming events that take place prior to getting aircraft’s engine started. Preparation of take-off is done by pilots. Air Traffic Control (ATC) is contacted post the gate closure. ATC specifies the taxiway; however, pilots stay clear of the runway the aircraft begins takeoff after ATC clears entrance in the runway.
There are several other different things (airline dispatch and operations control will decide and plan the route, which the aircraft will take, considering the weather conditions, fuel capacity, passenger load) that are taken into consideration to determine whether the aircraft will take-off in a given time or not.
How to Predict Flight Delay?
Do you know? You can now predict flight delays through Mr Boie App. You just have to enter your flight details and Mr Boie will tell you the likelihood of your flight is delayed. Besides this, you can even know all the details about your airport, track your flights, book cabs, upload documents, track expenses, claim flight compensation and so on.
Whatever the reason may be, your flight delay puts your journey on hold for sometime or maybe even longer.
But now you know, if the delay is happening from the airline’s side, you can change this unpleasant experience into something more. All you have to do is – Share your flight details at refundme.in and we will help you get the compensation.