by Leslie Vance
October 7, 1999
Every traveler at one time or another has had to endure having to wait on the ground
for their flight to be able to depart to their destination. Most are lucky enough to get
to wait in the terminal and others are sometimes caught in the aircraft having to struggle
with offloading back into the terminal or in worst cases having to wait it out in the
aircraft for hours. Some flights are delayed so long that they are cancelled and the
traveler has to struggle through all the hoops and loops to get back home. If they are
lucky, they find another way to get to where they are going.
We have all been there and we have all called everyone associated with the flight numerous
descriptive names. Passengers in this situation are put in a very uncontrollable position.
They are in a hostile environment which they have no control. Passengers tend to be off
center in the first place just being at the airport. They are expecting to board an
aircraft and be whisked away in no time without one hitch. All this uncertainty and
apprehension is just compounded when someone decides to delay the flight.
Delays Delays Delays!
There are many reasons why flights are delayed. Some delays are for obvious reasons while
others are for a more complicated reason. By far the biggest contributing factor to a
delay is weather. Weather is very disruptive to aviation and causes many problems for the
traveler. The confusing factor to passengers about weather is that it is not necessarily
the weather at their departure airport or the weather at their destination. These play a
major role but another factor is enroute weather: Weather that your aircraft has to fly
through to get to its destination. This all seems relatively simple but there is another
factor to consider.
Chain Reaction to Enroute Weather
Whenever there is weather in a major airport area or somewhere in between that is holding
up aircraft departing and arriving, there becomes a chain reaction of events. This
reaction can effect flights that are hundreds of miles away. An example of this would be a
flight from Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) to one of the Washington DC area flights (BWI or IAD).
There happens to be a line of weather extending from over the Great Lakes down to northern
Kentucky. This weather should not have any effect on the flight from Dallas to Washington.
Or so the normal passenger may think.
While you are checking on your ticket or preparing to board your aircraft, flights that
are going into Chicago and other Northeastern airports are being rerouted around that line
of weather. Air traffic controllers are sending the aircraft south around the south side
of the weather system right into the flight path your flight from DFW to Washington. These
large numbers of aircraft going south of this weather are not usually down this far south
and are mixed in with the normal flow of aircraft in the area. This produces what we air
traffic controllers call "sector saturation."
Sector Saturation
Sector saturation occurs when there are too many aircraft for the controller to safely
handle at any given time. Airspace in air traffic control is broken down into intricate
sectors of airspace in which controllers work their assigned sector. These sectors work
like a ballet passing aircraft through to one another and safely keeping them separated.
Some sectors can be very large in size. Sectors can be 40 to 50 miles across and can
sometimes be as large as 150 to 200 miles. You can have a lot of aircraft in these areas
at one time, therefore making it very complex. This is all complicated by weather
deviations by aircraft.
When sectors become this busy, they are effectively closed out to other aircraft in order
to regain the stability of the sector. This whole situation is monitored by an overlooking
group of controllers called Flow Control. They monitor the air traffic system and delay
aircraft on the ground whenever these types of situations occur in the system. While the
one of the main goals of air traffic is efficiency and without delay, the ultimate goal of
the air traffic system is safety. When large amounts of weather start pounding the US air
traffic system, delays are going to happen and the effects will be on a wider scale than
most passengers might expect.
Conclusion
So when you get that flight delay in the airport and you just have to get where you are
going on time, stop and think about what might be happening up in the air where your
flight will be traveling. You might just enjoy that cup of coffee or mixed drink better
knowing that things might be a little hectic up there.
Copyright © 1999