What do departure times actually mean?
Anyone here who works in despatch who can help me with a question?
When airlines quote departure and arrival times, to what to they actually refer? Is departure the time the gate closes, the time the aircraft is pushed back or the time the wheels leave the runway? Is arrival the time the aircraft touches down or when it arrives at the gate?
The reason I ask is that I'm of on my honeymoon in a few weeks and we're doing a total of 11 flights, 7 of which are with United Airlines, and I've been watching the flights over the past few weeks to see how reliable they are.
Take UA 931 from London to San Francisco, the quoted departure time being 14:45. On average, the plane leaves at about 15:20 and united's web site tells you how early or late it is and they say it's about 8 minutes late leaving, putting United's opinion of the target departure time at 15:12. Can anyone explain this disparity? Do airlines work to a slightly different internal timetable to the one published?
Rob.