Airport Arrival/Departure mis-information

Cardew

A rant about Flight Arrival/Departure notification.

You can supposedly find out up to date arrival and departure times by phone, on teletext or on the web. These timings are updated from the same data source as that displayed at the airport.

I assume the CAA is the agency in UK updates this data source, but whoever it is they need sacking!

I have lost count of the number of time I have arrived at the airport, after checking that the plane was on time, to find a lengthy delay on arrival or departure has just been announced.

My brother runs a Taxi firm near London and his drivers are forever arriving at airports to pick up passengers to find lengthy delays in arrival times have just been posted on the board.

Two personal examples:

I was to pick up my parents at Gatwick on a flight from Malta(a three and half hour flight) An hour before arrival time I phoned Gatwick and was told it was on time. At the airport a 2 hour delay was put on the board so I waited. At regular intervals the flight was delayed a further hour or so. I could not find out anything about delay. It eventually arrived 8 hours late. On a three and half hour flight, a two hour delay would mean the plane had been in the air for some while. It left 8 hours late.

Last year I was on an American Airlines Flight from Chicago to Manchester due to arrive early morning. My daughter was picking me up. A couple of hours before scheduled arrival she checked Teletext which announced the flight was cancelled! Phone calls to Manchester Airport and American Airlines in UK confirmed that cancellation.(presumably they were reading the same data). Knowing that I would have rung if the flight had been cancelled, she rang Chicago airport who confirmed that the flight had left on time. When she got to Manchester the arrivals board still had the flight as cancelled! I wonder how many people were not collected from the airport? You obviously could not blame a taxi driver for not turning up.