Departure Times - Heathrow vs elsewhere

[Mach086]

Guys,

I recently arrived back from a brilliant holiday in SFO. However I wanted to ask something. VS019 outbound, VS020 arriving. Brilliant flight and food btw Virgin. Cheers guys.

When we left Heathrow, the gate opened up about 15-30 mins before departure. And left the stand like 30 minutes after the departure time on the ticket.

However upon leaving SF, the gate was open an hour before departure (actually at checkin- they already knew the gate number) and we left 30 minutes early.

WHy isn't this possible in Heathrow, or should I say why is this possible in SFO?

[Dropline]

It is actually possible to depart on time at Heathrow... maybe there was a technical fault or crewing problem that delayed boarding your flight?
There are many many reasons why a flight may go late - you can't just blame it on the airport!
Last time I flew Virgin we left LHR on time, but pushed back 30 mins late out of JFK, then had a 45min taxy...

[strake]

I think I'd have to agree with dropline, there are so many factors that have to come together to get the a/c off the gate delays can happen anywhere in the process.

However, one of the problems with a truly early departure (including early take-off) is having a gate ready for you at arrival. Amply exampled by early morning stacking and queues at LHR following a jet-stream assisted flight from the USA. This used to be a problem at T4 but (not having used it much yet) maybe T5 is better?

[Scumbag O'Riley]

One gets the impression that ATC are more constrained in Europe. And there is always the underlying problem that Heathrow cannot appear to get anything right.

[PAXboy]

Bear in mind that the 'Departure Time' printed on your paperwork bears only a passing relationship to the Push Back and Rotation times!

All carriers at big airports want to depart on time, so they print departure times that are in advance of their schedule rotation time, to get us all on board in good time. For example, on my regular LHR~JNB route, we will often rotate up to 45 minutes 'late' but arrive 15 early. They cannot make up an hour so it means they have built delay time into the system.

When I was regular on LTN~IOM it was a 45 or 50 minute sector but always listed as being 60 minutes.

The only time to be interested in is the arrival at the gate time and that, as others have said, has more than enough variables of it's own! The last time I left JFK (on VS) we had a 55 minute taxi, inching our way out in a loooong line and we did arrive a bit late but not 55 minutes worth late.

[Avman]

The published departure time is the "off blocks" time, i.e. the time the a/c begins to move away from the gate (or remote parking position). The published arrival time is "on blocks", i.e. when the a/c comes to a final stop at it's stand.

In the majority of cases (to cut a long story short) aircraft departures in Europe are subject to ATC slots. The crew know what their slot is. They may decide to delay boarding accordingly. So, Mach086, it may have been that your flight had a 30 minute ATC slot delay, and effectively boarding started 1 hour prior to the anticipated push-back time. Many other possibilities too as mentioned above.