Where a Late Aircraft Gets Its Time Back

Summary

After an aircraft landed 30 or more minutes late, the next flight left 66.1 min late on average, against 80.3 min for the landing, so 14.2 min was given back. BUR gave back 9.0 min more than its turn lengths imply and SJU 11.3 min less. At 6 of 59 airports the next flight left later than the aircraft had landed.

A flight whose aircraft landed 30 or more minutes late leaves on time only if the ground crew and the schedule make up the difference. This report takes the 1,573,624 departures at 64 airports whose aircraft landed 30 or more minutes late and subtracts: the average minutes the aircraft was late on landing, less the average minutes the next flight was late leaving. Across all of them the aircraft landed 80.3 min late and the next flight left 66.1 min late, so 14.2 min was given back on the ground.

Departures whose aircraft landed 30 or more minutes late, at covered airports. A negative figure means the next flight left later than the aircraft had landed. Overnight stays are not turns and are left out.

With a scheduled turn of under 30 minutes the next flight left 124.2 min late after an aircraft that landed 72.7 min late. With 3 to 6 hours on the ground it left 23.3 min late after an aircraft that landed 121.1 min late. Each airport’s mix of turn lengths alone accounts for 78% of the difference between airports in time given back, so most of what looks like a trait of an airport is the length of the turns scheduled there.

Covered airports with at least 5,000 departures after an aircraft that landed 30 or more minutes late. Expected is the time given back by every other airport’s departures with the same scheduled turn, applied to this airport’s own mix of turns. Difference is time given back minus expected.

Same measure, the airports at the other end of the list.

DFW gave back the most in absolute terms, 29.6 min. At SNA, the least, the next flight left 6.8 min later than the aircraft had landed. At 6 of 59 airports the next flight left later on average than the aircraft had landed (CHS, SNA, RDU, RSW, MSY, and JAX). Of the 10 airports with the most such departures (DFW, ORD, DEN, ATL, CLT, LAS, SFO, MCO, PHX, and DCA), 7 gave back more than their turn lengths imply and 3 gave back less.

The airport is not the actor. The same airport has different airlines with different habits, and the data here has no airline in it, so a gap is a description of the departures from that airport and not a rating of the airport. An aircraft that landed late and then left late may have been held for a connection, a crew or a gate, and the data does not say which. Departures at the 5 covered airports with fewer than 5,000 such departures (12,931 in all) are left out of the lists.