The time between pushback from the gate and actually flying is getting longer at U.S. airports; for the first nine months of this year, it averaged over 23.5 minutes, according to the Associated Press.
That's almost a minute longer than last year, and the highest it's ever been since the government started keeping track 20 years ago. The increase hasn't affected on-time arrivals, however: the airlines simply plan the expected delays into the time, so a flight that once was scheduled for two hours might now be scheduled for two hours and 15 minutes.
The delays, caused by runway congestion at major airports also include delays after landing, caused either by waiting for a gate, or by long taxiing distances from distant runways.
Some of the delays are due to runway construction and improvement projects, such as the major work now going on at Chicago's O'Hare, an airport that accounts for 20% of the country's delays. But when it's finished and its under-construction additional runway is finished, it may not change the time much, because like a number of other new runways, it's far from the terminal and takes additional taxi time just to get there.
But one of the biggest factors affecting the time is the airlines' practice of "banking" flights so that many flights arrive and leave within a short time, reducing waiting time between flights for travelers who must change planes. It takes some of the sting out of hub-and-spoke route systems, but it jams the runways. Gumbo explained banking in a blog earlier this year; you can read it HERE.
Besides O'Hare, other taxiway hotspots include Dallas, due to rising traffic at Love Field and American's banking at DFW, which it dominates; and New York's JFK and Laguardia, where both banking and congestion help create backups. For more details from USA Today, click HERE.
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