Yes, slower.
Sometimes by minutes, sometimes by hours, planes today are scheduled with longer gate-to-gate times than in the past. The Telegraph (UK) gives examples. New York to Houston, 4 hours compared to 2.5 in 1973. London to Edinburgh is up 10 minutes, Madrid to Barcelona 20, New York to Chicago, 30.
And the reason isn’t that the planes can’t fly faster. In fact, none of the three main reasons is about that.
- When fuel costs rose sharply a few years ago, airlines realized they could save a lot of fuel by flying a little slower. In 2008, JetBlue saved $13.6 million by adding two minutes to each flight.
- More people flying means more flights lined up on the taxiways, and that means more time has to be allowed before the plane even gets in the air.
- And, with increasing government and consumer attention to on-time performance scores, airlines have stretched the times a bit so they can almost always be on time. Or ahead of it.
More details from the Telegraph HERE
