Why have Virgin got so many delays?

[penlanspice]

What's up with Virgins delays? I have been checking for the last week and nearly all their flights are leaving a couple of hours late, some even around 3hours

 

[angel659]

I am not sure to be honest. We were delayed over two hours both ways.

The flight was delayed over two hours and took 9 hours and 40 mins, due to bad head winds. The flight leaving Orlando was late due to arriving late from Vegas. I find it hard to believe that they can not fly out another plane while waiting for one to return to catch up with thier delays. Also the weather at Gatwick has been causing delays too apparently.

I dont know I am not in the industry, but find it frustrating when other airlines are on time. 90% I have flown with VA I have been delayed by two hours!

 

[stal]

i arrived back today. flight was over 3 hours late there and back. In the summer we got the same flight and it was 5/6 hours late

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

There can be many, many reasons why flights are delayed.
When you have for example a small fleet with not every day flights such as the charters, you can catch up in the down time, but also when an aircraft goes tech you can be seriously delayed then (as FlyGlobespan found this year)
Giant airlines such as BA can have spare aircraft sitting around to take up the slack yet they willonly do so in extreme circumstances. Flying out a crew and and aircraft empty costs thousands of pounds and can be more than the profit on a route for a week. BA have the buying power also to get first slots if an airfield has delays on take off/landings (as Heathrow and Gatwick do all the time)

Virgin are in between. they don't have aircraft and crew sitting around, they make profit by keeping aircraft in the air and passengered up.

Now so many things can effect the take off.
For example, on my last two Virgin flights, the following occurred
1) A passenger on the incoming flight fell seriously ill and there was due to their condition a lengthy delay in getting her off the aircraft, which put the cleaning crew back, then of course t5he slot was missed, the outbound pilot has to then negotitate a new take off and route as when you take off outside your allotted time, it effects the whole route and your effect on other aircrafts doing the same route
2) on the way back, frirst of all, the cleaning crew being down on numbers, i.e. no-shows, were late cleaning the aircraft, then a passenger who had an accident whilst on holiday and was on a strtcher had to be carefully loaded onto the ship, then when leaving the gate, one of the engines would not fire, being a jammed starter.

No airline can build in these delays, its not like many things that work on clockwork, too many variables can happen. Can you really get in your car, leave dead on time and then arrive on time very often? Always things on your journey effect these times.

You will arrive when you arrive. Don't get worked up about it, you are on holiday, relax.

 

[penlanspice]

You will arrive when you arrive. Don't get worked up about it, you are on holiday, relax.

Certainly not getting worked up about it, just glad their not on strike to be honest, I was just wandering why they have such bad time keeping lately. We always fly Virgin and never had any real delays and certainly not often the way they have been lately, one day they catch up and the next they have 3 hours delay again.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Certainly not getting worked up about it, just glad their not on strike to be honest, I was just wandering why they have such bad time keeping lately. We always fly Virgin and never had any real delays and certainly not often the way they have been lately, one day they catch up and the next they have 3 hours delay again.

Just the way it goes I am afraid.

frustrating for the passengers and for the crew alike

 

[gavvy]

I dont count anything under 2 hours as a delay these days, there are so many reasons why a delay can happen, Virgin seem to work their aircraft harder than most so a delay on the inbound aircraft can mean a delay on your flight.
Seems Gatwick ground crew never seem to be on the ball too, always last min paperwork to be completed or a descripency in the baggage or something, all adds up, along with a lot of departures in just a few hours each day, means things are streached to the limit!

 

[CustardTart]

IMO it's swings and roundabouts. We were delayed 2 hours there and back but TBH it wasn't too bad as we were home within an hour of landing at LGW. Immigration was speedy and our bags arrived on the conveyor belts very quickly. A flight from Sanford that arrived much earlier than our VA flight was uber-delayed as the baggage handlers didn't notify the terminal when they'd taken the bags off the flight. By the time they did, the terminal had no baggage claim slots available - now that is annoying...

 

[disneyholic family]

does virgin build delay time into their schedules?

many airlines do, so that even when they're delayed leaving, they still arrive on time or close to it..

Northwest does that...they have a huge chunk of time built into each flight for delays.....

last month we flew Northwest from amsterdam and back....both flights were delayed well over an hour leaving the gate (leaving detroit was the most bazarre reason i've ever encountered)....
but we ended up arriving a few minutes early at our destinations (detroit going there, amsterdam on the return) ..

so for the detroit story...

first we were delayed at the gate for quite a while....then finally the door closed and we pulled away from the gate....
then we had to wait to be de-iced....when the wait and de-icing was finally completed we were already a good hour past when we were supposed to be on our way...
THEN....the captain comes on and says, "one of the passengers has decided that he won't be continuing with us, so we'll be pulling back into the gate to let him off and remove his luggage....."

say what?????

so the plane pulls back into the gate, the door opens and the man sitting in our row but on the other side of the plane (airbus) gets up, grabs his carryon and runs out the door...
the man looked like your average businessman....not suspicious or anything...
a few minutes after the man leaves, the captain comes back on and says, "good news. the passenger didn't have any luggage, so we'll be back on our way now"...

is that weird or what?...
i've never had a plane pull back into the gate to let off a passenger (i did have one that pulled back in to pick up additional passengers, but not to let one off)..
maybe he had a sudden emergency phone call after he'd boarded...

who knows....very weird...

but it gets you thinking and worrying about the flight (from detroit to amsterdam)..
and of course because the weather was bad (heavy snow) the beginning of the flight was majorly bumpy.....so that just added to the nervous tension..

anyway.....getting back to the original point - northwest heavily pads their schedules...
even with all of the above, we arrived in amsterdam on time...(of course there was an amazing tail wind the whole way that helped)..

and pretty much every other NWA flight i've ever been on has been delayed, but still arrived on time or early on the other side..

 

[gavvy]

For a plane to take off on time it only has to taxi away from the gate at that time. Ever been on a plane and had a long long delay before take off after you have moved from the gate?,, thats why. Airlines can cook the books to an extent by pushing the plane from the gate knowing there is going to be a delay, yet that still counts as an "on time" departure!

Its no different to trains missing stations to make up time to its end destination etc!