V-Flyer

Can anyone explain why VS046 seems to be generally 30 - 40 minutes later than it scheduled arrival time even when it departs on time?

The flight that arrived at LHR today left JFK just 6 minutes late but shows an actual arrival time of 08:42 when it has a scheduled arrival of 07:50. This seems to of happened quite a lot recently.


John

Jetstream?

OR ATC hold

OR they're throttling back on the gas (literally) to save fuel burn.

Did wonder if it was an economy drive. Take your foot of the throttle so to speak and save a few pounds.

I seem to remember reading elsewhere that flying more slowly doesn't automatically reduce fuel consumption. In fact it can actually make it worse as aircraft are 'set up' for an optimum natural cruise/height/speed at which they are most efficient, so flying more slowly might actually make the aircraft more inefficient.

VS46 does leave JFK right in the middle of the evening rush so although an ontime departure is shown this might actually only mean an ontime pushback, and not take into account the hour or two that is lost in the queue for take off.

I've taken the 46 a couple of times in the past few months - its always at least an hour from leaving the gate to taking off and then we've had long flights of almost 7 hours, including a few circuits of the M25 hold. NY is no longer a short haul flight!

JFK is a nightmare. I have heard more than one pilot describe it as being akin to a third world airport in terms of the ground marshalling.[n] Heathrow's terminals may be worse, but from the gate onwards JFK takes some beating.

This is one of the reasons I will generally choose to fly out of Newark when coming back from NY.

It is a total nightmare - we pushed back on time, turned left at the runway, did a full circuit of the airport and ended up right near the gate we started to join the take off queue at about position number 30. Over 1 hour of wasted time and fuel - way to help the environment!