Modern aircraft are more efficient and fly faster than they did 20 years ago, right? Well yes, but also no. Because to fly from London to New York now takes eight hours when it took only seven in 1997, and from Dublin to London takes 90 minutes against the 60 of 25 years ago.
So what’s going on? Well to start, airports are a lot larger and getting to the end of the runway can take up to fifteen minutes more than it once did. Then planes are flying more slowly at cruising speed to save on fuel costs, adding on yet more minutes.
Airlines are also publishing longer flight times to avoid delays being registered. A practice known as “schedule padding,” as under EU law a delay of three hours or more entitles passengers to a compensation of anything from €250 to €600.
Then, and here we must give airlines their due, today’s skies are so crowded that planes are regularly forced into time-consuming holding patterns before landing, adding more precious minutes.
Pamela McCourt Francescone
Executive Editor
