Originally Posted by
Capn Bloggs
That's clearly ridiculous. You obviously do have no idea. Pretty obvious though from your previous posts.
Short range flights will be held on the ground or spaced out to give priority to long haul flights. It’s called metering and is managed by the local TRACON and the center when terminal conditions deteriorate or other factors (like this) take place.
We just had an area of strong winds in the Southwest of the USA. I was departing KLAS to KOAK and we were being metered because they were only taking off and landing on the 01s. (Runways). That killed their arrival and departure rate. There were up to 1 hour delays because of this. It happens a lot. When I left OAK there was a ground stop into LAS. Luckily I was going to a different destination.
I know Europe has arrival and departure issues. I’ve held going into LHR quite often, although it’s so much better now than before COVID. It’s the same thinking, just applied in a different way.