A couple of weeks ago I flew Aer Lingus, from Dublin to London, return, for some work. The return flight departed two hours late.
What's worse is that the heathrow - Dublin flight that was supposed to fly an hour after my flight arrived and departed on time. The aircraft was identical and I was surprised when they didn't quietly transfer us to that aircraft. That would have meant that 2 flights were delayed by 1 hour each rather than 1 flight by 2 hours. I thought that was common practice.
Here, I think, is the problem: the airlines like to competitively compare their "on time performance". It is useful to know that, say, 98% of one airlines flights arrive on time where as its competitors flights only arrive 85% on time. You'd think it was a good indication of reliability and perhaps even satisfaction. So, if you are being measured by on-time performance and you've got the choice of having one flight delayed or two flights delayed, and the length of delay doesn't matter, then what do you do? Well do what they did to my flight.
I don't know if that's what happened but it wouldn't surprise me. I can't think of any other rational explaination. Scotrail, who used to be our local train company, was renowned for unnecessarily cancelling trains that were delayed because the cancellations and delays were counted seperately. Or so it is said.
.oOo. Sent from my BlackBerry www.ClarkeChing.com +44(0)7920114893
