BHX / ALC Flight duration and info

[CVTDog]

As a frequent user of the Birmingham / Alicante route usually with FlyBe, BMI or Mon I am curious about what seems to significant variation in the flying times.

The declared flying time with FlyBe & BMI is 2Hrs 40 mins and MON is 2Hrs 25mins. Does MON have a more direct route ?

This Sundays return leg from ALC with FlyBe was a quick 2hrs 15mins. Whilst that is obviously great I just wondered why the variation was so significant. (I would like that flight time every time)

I guess its a bit naive of me to ask but I why do we get routed out so wide of the continent - is this to avoid particular airspace.

I was dissapointed to see that FlyBe have taken off - or lost - the 15:15 outbound slot for the winter and given up flying back on Sunday altogether.

I need a pm BHX outbound on friday (after 15:00) and as late as poss back on a Sunday to see my family in Alicante over the weekends and the others are all to early on Friday this Winter.

Shame really as those slots were well supported with PAX looking for weekends away

[PAXboy]

I'm sure that airline staff will be able to help but: all carriers build delays into the stated flight times. The departure time is many minutes earlier than the time they have in the book for push and rotate - but they want you there earlier. Likewise, if they depart late, then the sector time carries 'fat'. Also the given time is from Push to Shutdown.

One simple example, a route that I take often is LTN to IOM and the time is always given as one hour. Actual 'wheels-to-wheels' is 45 minutes unless we are very unlucky with the winds. In this way, they can be delayed and still arrive on time.

Punctuality is seen as one of the critical parts of the operation, particularly for biz folks. So everyone manipulates the schedule to increase the percentage of flights that arrive on time. This has been so successful that all of the UK railway companies have now done the same thing with their timetables.

[TopBunk]

A few points:

1. The schedule ie published times are from pushback to park. The flight times will usually therefore be less than this by 15-20 minutes (larger differntial at larger/busier airports!)

2. Aircraft fly at different speeds, over a medium length sector such as this, flying in a RJ vs a A320 vs xyz could easily give a 5-10 minute variance in flying (and hence sector) times

3. Winds vary on the day, schedules are normally built with average winds in mind. BHX-ALC average track SSE, returning NNW. The winds are generally westerly, this will statistically give a longer return flight. This is more noticeable on east-west routes.

4. Most/all flights are governed by negotiated separture and arrival times. Sometimes the slots are not the ideal, so the schedules will contain more (or no!) slack in them, hence different schedules for different operators on the same route, even with the same equipment.

5. Airports are busier at some times of day, this may affect the published schedules.

I'm sure that others can come up with other reasons....

[Phileas Fogg]

Basically some airlines exaggerate their schedules thus if they depart late they can arrive on time, Ryanair do this all the time to retain their puncuality record whilst other airlines may 'undercut' their schedules to get more blood out of the same stone.

They all fly the same airways and the same routes but obviously different aircraft types have different cruising speeds, there are weekend only airways, when the military are not active, that can shave a few minutes off a schedule but what happens in reality, at quieter times, is that ATC will give direct point to point routings, sod the airways, and this will shave even further minutes off the shedule.