Flight cancellations and delays can be really infuriating. When you expect to get to your destination on time and don’t, it can ruin your whole day and even your whole trip.
Unfortunately, this is especially true when your flight is canceled at a busy time, or around the holidays. You could end up missing your family celebration as you sit in the airport and wait to be rebooked on another flight.
Sometimes this happens because of bad weather or issues with a plane. Those are annoying circumstances, but also somewhat out of the control of the airlines.
Yet there’s actually another surprising reason for flight cancellations — especially those that happen at the worst possible time.
Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle recently revealed this unexpected and overlooked cause of flight cancellations — and it is sure to make you mad.
Image source: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images
This is the unexpected reason flights get canceled
Biffle took to LinkedIn to share the surprising and infuriating reason for flight delays, especially on peak travel days, including the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the day after Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Presidents’ Day.
Airlines have to file their flight plan at the same time as our schedule. A private jet wants to leave at the same time. They and we know we will likely get a ground delay program of two or three hours. The PJ simply files for an earlier time and then gets to leave when they wanted to leave once they get the delay program. Sadly, airlines often end up having to cancel because these delays stack up and time out our crews.
The ground delay programs Biffle mentioned happen when an airport gets very crowded in order to manage air traffic. It involves assigning “Expect Departure Clearance Times” (EDCTs) to flights to ensure a steady flow of arrivals and departures.
Biffle said private jets may game this system by giving air traffic controllers an earlier desired departure time in anticipation of being delayed, so they actually get out at the time they want. But commercial airlines can’t do this, so they end up delayed longer.
Biffle said this is especially likely to happen when flying out of Florida.
Are private jets causing flight delays?
While Biffle believes private jets are the issue, travel experts have mixed opinions.
Ben Schlappig of One Mile at a Time acknowledged that private jets are crowding the skies. He reports that when ground delay programs go into effect, private jets don’t get lesser priority than commercial planes, despite the fact that many more people are inconvenienced when a commercial flight is delayed.
This system probably doesn’t make sense.
If we’re going to look at this from a ‘greatest good for the greatest number of people’ standpoint, [Biffle is] absolutely right.
Ben Schlappig, One Mile at a Time
However, the article also suggested that Biffle might be overstating the problem, as it would be risky for private jet operators to put in a time of departure based on a ground delay when one never comes.
Related: Delta Air Lines’ weird rule is leaving Americans stranded overseas
Still, others acknowledge that this is a widespread issue, with one commenter explaining that problems also happen in other destinations where private jets frequently travel.
“An earlier comment notes Aspen/Pitkin. Bingo. During peak times, the private jets use a variety of antics to take over the airspace and limited landing slots, leaving several hundred passengers a day stranded at ASE outbound and diverted to Grand Junction or stuck in Denver,” one commenter on the article said.
What is the Frontier Airlines CEO’s solution to the private-jet problem?
Biffle does have a suggestion to fix this problem. He recommended that the FAA simply set a reservations system, and he’s planning to push this idea with officials.
“I’m meeting with the FAA next week and hoping we can get traction on commonsense approaches that allow us to stop canceling flights, ruining vacations for hundreds of people to benefit a few flying from Palm Beach to NY.”
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Biffle went on to say, “We all need to demand commonsense approaches to protecting travel for the masses. Download this app so you can see who is flying when your flight gets canceled. I will let you know how the FAA meeting goes.”
It remains to be seen how it will pan out, but if a change is made, travelers may have Frontier to thank for helping them get to their destination on time.
Related: American Airlines cancels flight permanently, offers refunds
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