Airport delay in majorca

[swindontony]

Just last week we experienced a 5 hour delay at Palma Airport, nobody has ever explained why, does anyone know the reason.

[andy hughes]

The routing of planes is an extremely complex business, and a delay anywhere in the world can have a knock-on effect. If your plane was flying from a destination two hours away, and it was delayed for any reason, it could miss its 'slot' - its place in the take-off queue, and this could delay take-off for an hour or two. Planes try to make up some time in the air, but that is limited, because landing 'slots' are allocated as well. If you multiply this scenario, and add in any other unforseen delays, and work out the potential delays around the world, its a miracle that plaes get anywhere on time! No wonder they don't hang about for people browsing in Duty Free who miss five 'last call' announcements.  

[Bangkok]

It is often worse with charter flights as they need to pick the cheapest option to make money, and so if the slot is missed they have to balance speed with cost when deciding when to leave (for example, if the destination airport will be busy so they have to circle, wasting fuel, they may decide to wait).  Scheduled flights also have to consider these issues, but have a much bigger incentive as they rely on repeat business decided by the individual passengers rather than tour companies.

[Hyphen]

They were probably on their tea break. They just lost track of time!!! that happened to me in Palma a few years ago, what a pain in the behind!!