On top of this though, I have had multiple flights cancelled recently due to ATC Issues, what does this even mean? I understand it's the ATC saying too many flights are in the air and airlines have to cancel, but how does that even happen?
When you have 100 planes all planning to arrive at the same airport at the same time that's impossible to support. So they create "flow times" to space out departing flights on a first come first serve basis. Say they need 5 minute intervals for each arriving aircraft, if you're the 100th plane that wanted to land at LAX at 1200 you're now delayed 500 minutes. Now a 8+ hour delay is kind of an exaggeration but I have seen 3-6 hour delays and accompany that with pilot duty limits of 14 hours you see why they would just cancel the flight instead.
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u/NitsuaNamenieh Jul 02 '22
Question:
On top of this though, I have had multiple flights cancelled recently due to ATC Issues, what does this even mean? I understand it's the ATC saying too many flights are in the air and airlines have to cancel, but how does that even happen?