VS27 always late?

Hello All

I have just looked at an interesting web site called Flightstats.com.

With only 3 weeks before we travel to MCO from LGW I was interested to see how often VS27 and VS28 were late on departure. I started by looking daily at the LGW website and found that VS27 nearly always departed late.

When I looked at the Flightstats website the problem appeared to happen all the time with the average delay being 65 mins.

Can anybody explain why the flight is always delayed? [?]

Comparing other VS flights, VS27 appears to be particularly badly effected.

Many Thanks

Roy



MCO in [countdown]Jun 30, 2008 11:15:00 AM[/countdown]

I must admit I kept a close eye on the VS27 during late April/early May as I was travelling outbound on May 6th.
According to expertflyer.com it is only on time 23% and has an average delay of 69 minutes, indeed when I flew it was just under 2 hours late.
I think most people agree that it's due to the very tight schedule at LGW, it only takes a bit of bad weather or a technical problem with an aircraft which seems to cause a knock on effect for the next few days. Also the turn around time is so tight unless the inbound flight is bang on time the 27 will always be late.

-Steve

Unfortunately the 27 and the 15 are the last two flights out of LGW so if inbound a/c are ever delayed it's these two flights which are affected.
As we know at LGW all six flights depart close together in the morning and are on tight turnarounds so delays are common, as there is no spare aircraft.
I just took the 27 out on thursday and we were delayed 3 hours and the 15 was delayed an hour, so they both took off at the same time. This was due to the knock-on effect of the a/c which diverted to bgi and the six hour delayed inbound hav from a few days before. Any kind of delay has a knock-on effect for days with the airports trying to play catch-up and claw back the minutes by turning the a/c round as quickly as possible. I'm afraid that unless we ever have a spare a/c (not likely) there will always be delays at LGW.
Add to this that it is thunderstrom season in florida at the moment so there are regular delays coming back from MCO as the baggage handlers are not allowed to load the a/c if there is a storm passing through.

Originally posted by virginboy747

Add to this that it is thunderstrom season in florida at the moment so there are regular delays coming back from MCO as the baggage handlers are not allowed to load the a/c if there is a storm passing through.

Add to this the airport can be closed. Last year I got diverted to JAX inbound as MCO was closed and then once reopened the captain wanted to wait till it was bit safer.