Silly question... flight times

[sam_gordon]

This really has no background story or anything, I'm just curious what the official "Departure" and "Arrival" times are supposed to mean.

My understanding (with no factual backups except the few times I fly) is "Departure" refers to 'pushback' (when the plane is pushed back from the gate) time and 'Arrival' time refers to when the plane lands (add another couple minutes for taxiing & gate parking.

Does it vary by airline?

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

I think they're actually both tied to the gate times.

Departure is recorded when the door is closed and the gate is pulled back from the plane -- even if the plane itself is not pushed back from the gate for some time.

Arrival time printed on your itinerary is when the plane is scheduled to arrive at the destination gate.

What can be confusing to me is the in-flight announcements. The flight attendants usually make announcements based on gate times. The pilots usually make announcements based on flying times, which is take-off to landing.

 

[DebbieB]

The way I understand it, it's the time that the blocks are taken off the wheels until the time they are put back on at arrival. Typically the blocks do not come off until right before the pushback starts and are put on as soon as the plane stops at the gate.