Ryanair Flight Times

[ccc]

They just make them up don't they ? Have been on a fair few over the last couple of years. Every one has landed 'early' with that little fanfare they fire out. This let's them lay the claim to have the most on time flights of any airline in Europe.

I know there are a few pilots on this forum so any info would be great. Why are they allowed to extend the time of a flight when they almost always take far less ? Both my flights this weekend were allegedelly almost 40 minutes early !! And these flights were just 2 and a half hours to start with.

I know a tail wind can help - but that is taking the mick. Plus they appear to get tail winds in every direction they fly. How useful.

Their time for a flight from Edinburgh to Dublin is officially 1 hour and 5 minutes. That is just nonsense. Anyone who goes on that flight regularly knows that flight is 45-50 minutes - max. Do they not have to have a detailed flight plan that actually states when they really will arrive ? Is there not some safety aspect to this ?!!

Anyway I still use them as you get what you pay for. Cheap tat flights can be very useful. I just find their timings bizarre.

Cheers Captains in advance !!

[SMAC67]

Flight times advertised are usually on the generous side to allow for congestion and delays. It also makes everyone look good when they turn up early. Since they operate to minimum turnaround times, that is, time spent on the ground, the crew will be doing their damndest to be early so that they can leave on time. Most problems occur on the ground, not in the air.

As for safety, well, what do you think? Does hurrying everywhere in your car increase your, and every other road users safety? Same applies to flying, more haste, less safety.

In aviation, safety is never the top priority.

[ccc]

Flight times advertised are usually on the generous side to allow for congestion and delays. It also makes everyone look good when they turn up early. Since they operate to minimum turnaround times, that is, time spent on the ground, the crew will be doing their damndest to be early so that they can leave on time. Most problems occur on the ground, not in the air.

As for safety, well, what do you think? Does hurrying everywhere in your car increase your, and every other road users safety? Same applies to flying, more haste, less safety.

In aviation, safety is never the top priority.

But how can they advertise a 45 minute flight as an hour and five minutes ? Surely false advertising counts even if it is in the customer's favour ?

As for safety you can't really say that about Ryanscare. For all the stories about them, and there are a few, their safety record is shit hot.

[twatmangle]

They just make them up don't they ? Have been on a fair few over the last couple of years. Every one has landed 'early' with that little fanfare they fire out. This let's them lay the claim to have the most on time flights of any airline in Europe.

I know there are a few pilots on this forum so any info would be great. Why are they allowed to extend the time of a flight when they almost always take far less ? Both my flights this weekend were allegedelly almost 40 minutes early !! And these flights were just 2 and a half hours to start with.

I know a tail wind can help - but that is taking the mick. Plus they appear to get tail winds in every direction they fly. How useful.

Their time for a flight from Edinburgh to Dublin is officially 1 hour and 5 minutes. That is just nonsense. Anyone who goes on that flight regularly knows that flight is 45-50 minutes - max. Do they not have to have a detailed flight plan that actually states when they really will arrive ? Is there not some safety aspect to this ?!!

Anyway I still use them as you get what you pay for. Cheap tat flights can be very useful. I just find their timings bizarre.

Cheers Captains in advance !!

Also, don't forget that they also fly into remote airstrips with no other traffic, so no stacking.

I have the entirely unpleasant experience of being forced to fly Ryanair tomorrow, and again on Friday.

And again next week; Twice.

[ccc]

Also, don't forget that they also fly into remote airstrips with no other traffic, so no stacking.

I have the entirely unpleasant experience of being forced to fly Ryanair tomorrow, and again on Friday.

And again next week; Twice.

Well it does say depart and arrive - so maybe this does not refer to flight times and is a bit more wooly. I assume their detailed flight times for the airports etc.. give accurate timings.

Enjoy your flights !!

[Kyoto]

I noticed this phenomena. On the short flights, time taxi-ing at the destination can sometimes add another 10 minutes.

[winkie]

Never over promise and under deliver.

[ccc]

Never over promise and under deliver.

But where does it end ? The other airlines do not do it to such extremes - so they must be miffed that Ryanair get all the credit for these 'on time flights' when they have an in built buffer zone. Is there going to be a time war ?!

In a years time if you see all London to Edinburgh flights advertised as 10 hours duration don't say I didn't warn you.

[twatmangle]

But where does it end ? The other airlines do not do it to such extremes - so they must be miffed that Ryanair get all the credit for these 'on time flights' when they have an in built buffer zone. Is there going to be a time war ?!

In a years time if you see all London to Edinburgh flights advertised as 10 hours duration don't say I didn't warn you.

Maybe they're allowed to add a certain amount of time for taxiing, queuing,stacking etc. Since most Ryanair flights seem to flying to or from former Soviet airbases in Eastern Europe, this is quite convenient for them.

The simple answer is, I don't know.

[ccc]

Maybe they're allowed to add a certain amount of time for taxiing, queuing,stacking etc. Since most Ryanair flights seem to flying to or from former Soviet airbases in Eastern Europe, this is quite convenient for them.

The simple answer is, I don't know.

Thanks for trying anyway - there must be a pilot on here somewhere with inside info...

[Peter Hun]

Thanks for trying anyway - there must be a pilot on here somewhere with inside info...

Try the Spectators Balcony (Spotters Corner) sub forum of PPrune

[tboy]

Have noticed Ryanair's ridiculously long "flight" times too...and I've even been on one that arrived 20 minutes late and they STILL played the "we've landed early" jingle, I swear I was the only person that even noticed...

Would love to use BA more as really like it, but they are just so unreasonable priced if you want single flights, or fly into one airport and out the other etc...singles costing more than returns...hate that. And their website is so much more awkward to find flights than Sleazyjet/Ryanscare...

[Ron Forthehills]

In recent times Ryanair has had a reputation within the profession of flying unusually fast approaches ( as a company policy) dropping gear very late to save fuel , and avoid dragging in on finals with full flap and gear down. That is not inherently dangerous BUT it does decrease separation if the aircraft in front is slow to exit the runway, and increase the chance of landing long, which in turn has implications for stopping distance if the runway is wet, for instance.

[The Ayatollah Buggeri]

It's not just the aviation industry that does this: in particular, train operators are notorious for increasing advertised journey times in order to make the lateness figures look good. When I moved to York in 1999, there were several trains to London with an advertised journey time of 1h40. In my experience, very few actually made it, because that more or less assumed that the train could do well over 100mph all the way. Now the quickest advertised journey is around 2h20, and most are nearer to three hours. Some train geek recently pointed out in the local rag that the average timetabled journey time across all the trains running during a weekday in 2009 is now around 15 minutes longer than was the case in 1909. In reality, the journey times are about the same: if I understand the technicalities correctly, there is an effective limit on how fast a train can travel without a quantum leap in infrastructure technology and cost, which is around 100mph. Therefore actual journey times now remain around the same as they were in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods and have been ever since, but the timetabled slots have been lengthened to avoid them going down in the stats as running late.

[Boomer!]

I noticed this phenomena. On the short flights, time taxi-ing at the destination can sometimes add another 10 minutes.

Try paris or chicago f8ck me it takes longer to get from the run way to the parking bay(whatever) than the f*ckin flight takes.

[Guest theboltonfury]

Try paris or chicago f8ck me it takes longer to get from the run way to the parking bay(whatever) than the f*ckin flight takes.

Their flights to Amsterdam land in the Hague and takes a set of B roads to Schipol.

[Boomer!]

Their flights to Amsterdam land in the Hague and takes a set of B roads to Schipol.

Aparently the one to Frankfurt lands at an airprt 125k's away from frankfurt

[jackalope]

Thanks for trying anyway - there must be a pilot on here somewhere with inside info...

Checking in...

The published timetable is purely a commercial construct, Ryanair can put whatever times they like on it. There's obviously an upper limit of credibility on the extent to which they can pad the schedule to get good OTP stats though.

[thecrashingisles]

In recent times Ryanair has had a reputation within the profession of flying unusually fast approaches ( as a company policy) dropping gear very late to save fuel , and avoid dragging in on finals with full flap and gear down. That is not inherently dangerous BUT it does decrease separation if the aircraft in front is slow to exit the runway, and increase the chance of landing long, which in turn has implications for stopping distance if the runway is wet, for instance.

So it's not just my imagination that Ryanair flights land harder than any other airline. Sometimes I'm amazed the planes stay in one piece.

[ccc]

Checking in...

The published timetable is purely a commercial construct, Ryanair can put whatever times they like on it. There's obviously an upper limit of credibility on the extent to which they can pad the schedule to get good OTP stats though.

Thanks Captain.

I am surprised they can simply put down what they wish. Would have thought there weer some consumer checks taking place. Clearly not !!

As for credibility - I think they are pushing the boundaries already.

[jackalope]

I am surprised they can simply put down what they wish. Would have thought there weer some consumer checks taking place. Clearly not !!

But how can you decide what's appropriate? There are plenty of good operational reasons why you'd schedule a flight that looks longer than it "should". When I used to fly to the Middle East we used dogleg around certain arab shitholes like Syria where we didn't have overfly permissions and that gave us a much longer scheduled flight time than our competitors.

I also think that, in Ryanair's market, performance against the schedule is more important that published flight duration. I'd rather have 95% OTP and an extra 20 minutes on the scheduled time rather than a shorter flight time that they can only acheive, say, 65% of the time.

[ccc]

But how can you decide what's appropriate? There are plenty of good operational reasons why you'd schedule a flight that looks longer than it "should". When I used to fly to the Middle East we used dogleg around certain arab shitholes like Syria where we didn't have overfly permissions and that gave us a much longer scheduled flight time than our competitors.

I also think that, in Ryanair's market, performance against the schedule is more important that published flight duration. I'd rather have 95% OTP and an extra 20 minutes on the scheduled time rather than a shorter flight time that they can only acheive, say, 65% of the time.

Well call me crazy...but maybe a flight time that is roughly close to what actually happens ?

Again - a crazy idea - I know.

[twatmangle]

My Ryanair flight yesterday, set off 15 minutes late on an advertised 1hr 15 minute flight.

It arrived ahead of schedule, with crappy fanfare included.

And yes it was an extremely bumpy landing as ever.

[ccc]

My Ryanair flight yesterday, set off 15 minutes late on an advertised 1hr 15 minute flight.

It arrived ahead of schedule, with crappy fanfare included.

And yes it was an extremely bumpy landing as ever.

Perfect case in point !! I wonder if the only reason nobody has complained about this - is due to the fact they think they are benefiting from it ? When in fact flight times that bear no relation to reality help nobody except Ryanair themselves. If I am bored one day I will email the consumer standards people and see what they say.

They are selling something. They say it takes x amount of time. It doesn't. Surely in this day and age of legislation this falls foul of at least one consumer rule/law....

[Guest X-QUORK]

My father was a commercial pilot for 20 years and he refuses to fly Ryanair for safety reasons. He's happy to use other budget airlines like Easyjet, but in his view Ryanair are an accident waiting to happen due to their aggresive corner-cutting culture.