And at that time they were, ridiculously so, thanks to the favorable exchange rate. Slowing things down a little sounded like a really nice idea, providing the fares were affordable. It’s being stuck in the air for more than three to four hours at a clip, in coach-that’s the part I still can’t wrap my head around. It’s not the flying I hate, or even dealing with airports, something you can easily get very good at, once you’ve seen the same airport one hundred times. Why not book a nonstop flight from Vancouver to London, you’re thinking, and get it over with? That wasn’t the point. John’s, at the time-my airship had come in. Flight time? Typically less than four hours out, and supposedly not much more on the way back. John’s, Newfoundland, to Dublin, Ireland, on an almost daily basis, if memory serves-the distance is roughly 2,000 miles, which is something like New York to Salt Lake City. I’d never thought of them as a way to get to Europe, and clearly, I’d been missing out. WestJet was already one of my favorite North American airlines, and they often have great fares. Back in 2016, while living in Vancouver, I happened to see an ad for low fares to Europe on WestJet. More recently, the market has opened up-way up. Related: The Most Exciting New Routes in 2020 Unless I had the time to do the old Reykjavik layover shuffle (more on that coming up), there weren’t a lot of cost-effective options. Life is short, but it’s not that short-are we really in that much of a hurry?įor a long time, this meant Europe would typically wait until I could save up for, or get my hands on a Business class ticket, or later on, a slightly less expensive but still quite pricey Premium Economy fare. I don’t even like flying nonstop from New York to Los Angeles, it’s just too long in one very uncomfortable position. As often as I fly to Europe, I’ve never gotten used to the ordeal. The value is there-if you want it.īut do you, really? There are those who can pour themselves into those tiny Economy seats, sleep like they were their own beds, hopping off at Heathrow a few hours later, annoyingly rested and ready. The traveler is now typically offered round-trip fares in the low $300’s, sometimes even less, and not much more than the low $400’s, at least for the moment, right at summer’s peak. Savings-wise, at this point, we cannot really ask for much more from the New York to London route-not if we want these airlines to keep flying, anyway. John Cox is a retired airline captain with US Airways and runs his own aviation safety consulting company, Safety Operating Systems.Fares to and from Europe are almost irresistible, but then there’s the matter of up to seven hours or more in Economy. Q: Do the pilots get just as mad as passengers when left on tarmac for hours?Ī: Pilots can be just as frustrated as passengers during delays. Takeoffs are not calculated based on time, but on airspeed after calculating the performance variables. Some airplanes, such as a very heavily loaded four-engine model, may have a much longer ground run, around 50 seconds. Alan Taylor Chemainus, Vancouver IslandĪ: A normal takeoff run is around 35 seconds. Q: How long does it take a commercial jet to take off? In – When the airplane opens the door at the gate.įlight time is off to on. Out – When door is closed for departure and push back starts If an average flight time includes additional planning time and the flight does not experience the anticipated delays, you can arrive well ahead of schedule.Īirlines use four times for operational purposes: This added time is not needed for an 11 p.m. As an example, every airline flying into New York on a Friday afternoon knows that there will be delays, so additional time is added to the schedule. Submitted by reader Jim Pivirotto, Myrtle Beach, S.C.Īnswer: Airlines create flight times based on the previous history of the flight. Also, when does the clock start: boarding, push back or wheels up? Question: How are flight times established? I've noticed that the actual times are often much less than predicted, sometimes close to half as long as scheduled.
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