Slot Delays

[Amenhotep]

Hello all,

Once again I call upon the greater intellect and collective wisdom than my own! Can anyone tell me where (precisely) can I find information about why there were 2hr Atlantic slot delays from Brussels? Their CFMU public website is so confusing, I can't make head nor tail of it.

Thanks

[jumpseater]

It will have been due to an excess demand for a sector/sectors of airspace/airdrome capacity, the reasons for which are many and varied. When an excess requirement for the sector occurs, a 'slot' is issued to manage the traffic flow through that piece of airspace/airport.

TIC Simplistic explanation here.
http://www.pprune.org/5832256-post12.html

NB any other aircraft transiting the regulated airspace would have been affected too, regardless of departure/arrival point unless it was a specific Brussels departure regulation.

[10W]

What day and time ?

[Amenhotep]

Silly of me.
It was on 25/06/2011 in the afternoon around 13:00z. I only ask because it caused over 2hr slot delays. Somewhat unusual. Somebody must record why. I can't imagine a huge spike in demand, was a random fluctuation. Something muct have caused that much disruption.

Thanks.

[Lon More]

place of departure would help; was it Zaventem itself?

I'm not quite clear as to whether you mean "Brussels" as CFMU or the airport.

[flowman]

Just had a quick look at the summary for Saturday (the day of your post, maybe not the date of your flight) and there were no restrictions out of Brussels, or over the UK or Ireland that would have generated such a delay.

Was the flight delayed inbound from the USA? There were several days last week when US departures were delayed by severe weather on the Eastern seaboard, up to 2 hours for some flights. Subsequently some flights were severely delayed or even cancelled outbound from Brussels.

You seem quite clear though that "Brussels" was issuing 2hr slot delays to transatlantic flights. Give me more info, like a flight number and date of flight, and I might be able to investigate.

[galaxy flyer]

This would be the first time an airline blamed "ATC" for a myriad of its own problems, or "weather", for that matter

GF

[andrijander]

GF, you must be using irony, right?

Not the first time I've heard them, as a pax and via the PA on board the plane, blame ATC for something. I guess some companies see us as the "bad cop that fined me for breaking the law" in some cases. One good example was boarding a flight that was late, mess made by crew when counting pax (it does not take 10 minutes and having to open doors again to cross check with handlers) and therefore missing slot by over 20 minutes. Of course, when captain explained us what was going on, it was a (quote) "little present from the controllers" (end quote).

:ugh:

[flowman]

No further info received :rolleyes:

[25check]

Maybe due to thunderstorms, there have been a lot about recently

[BrATCO]

Or a late FPL, late rerouteing, early oceanic clearance, ... :confused:

It seems there wasn't much "as late as this one" flights that day (we would have heard about it :rolleyes:).
So I vote for a mistake from the company in regard of the flow procedures(just a guess !) and wait for more news. Then, maybe, flowman could enlighten or lantern.:)