European Delays Getting Worse?
I've been flying low cost airlines to and from the UK, probably 20 times per year, for the last 10 years or so, mainly to/from Stansted, Gatwick and Luton. I just can't pass up some of the prices, and I accept the inevitable stress of travelling with low cost airlines from these airports. Generally my experience had been ok, neither good nor bad. I've come to expect later flights to be delayed and I understand the baggage policies so I'm not surprised when my bag sometimes gets checked at the gate. There are many things I utterly loathe about these airlines, but, you get what you pay for and once I'm actually at my destination I appreciate the money not spent travelling with a proper carrier.
However, the last 5 evening flights I've taken from European destinations to London have had delays in excess of 90 minutes, and up to 2 hours in some cases. This, to me, is something new in the last year or so, and my long and generally pain-free relationship with low cost carriers is most definitely over. The latest was a 2 hour delay from Bilbao which the pilot blamed on the late arrival of the inbound aircraft. To me, that is not an acceptable excuse. It is saying the flight is late because the flight is late.
It seems to have become accepted and expected that there will be significant flight delays late in the day. But what way is that to run a service? And what is the penalty for the airline for a 90 minute delay? If the compensation only kicks in at 2 hours, then there is no incentive to run realistically scheduled services, so everyone runs late with no comeback.
What I would do is bring in legislation which penalises airlines which cannot meet their scheduled departure/arrival times within a certain margin. Otherwise I believe it is false advertising. So, for example, a flight must have to meet its scheduled arrival times within, say, 15 minutes, 75% of the time. It's like the laws preventing credit card companies from advertising a deal which only 5% of people would actually get. That was banned, and likewise unrealistic flight scheduling should be banned.
Just an idea.. Obviously there would be difficulties, e.g., ATC restrictions outside the airline's control, however, these known unknowns could be planned and catered for with some integrated planning with ATC and airlines to come up with realistic schedules.