Originally Posted by
WHBM
A further example is gaming the Heathrow night slots. These are measured by a number per season, which works out to about 14 a day. They have tended to become used now principally for the pre-0600 early arrivals, although Heathrow is an H24 airport. BA have about half of them, so 7 a night.
However, one of these night slots is also needed for a post-2300 departure, so if there is a departure technical delay beyond then you need such a slot, an extra one of which is hard to come by so you can be stuck for an overnight delay. BA, however, can do an 0100 departure for a substantially delayed flight, and maybe a week later just tip an 0530 arrival back to 0605 by delaying one overseas departure for half an hour, or doing a few more laps of Lambourne.
That sounds like a win-win for the punter. Why would you force airlines to pull a long delay? That could cost them, and ultimately you, €600 per passenger plus missed connections, wasted trips, etc.