Thousands of air travellers found themselves facing significant delays over the Bank Holiday weekend after Britain’s air traffic control system said it was experiencing a “technical issue”.
Some experts have warned that it could take days for the backlog to be cleared as delays of up to 12 hours were reported.
Naturally, all these heinously delayed flights have us asking all sorts of flight-related questions, including:
“If a flight is delayed after I’ve boarded, why do we have to stay on the plane for hours?”
It is truly one of the most mind-bogglingly boring things – trapped in your seat, twiddling your thumbs and feeling your legs go numb as you sit and wait it out on the tarmac.
Wouldn’t be easier to let everyone off and reboard hours later when the flight was actually ready to head off? At least that way you’d be able to enjoy a stretch of the legs around the terminal.
Well, question no further, weary traveller, as a travel expert has come to our rescue to reveal all.
Sean Tipton from the Association of British Travel Agents explained that we’re made to wait on the plane – even when there’s hours of delays – is because it’s usually waiting for a slot to takeoff, which is “something of a movable feast”.
Reboarding passengers could cause the airline to miss the slot, something what would “cause even longer delays,” Tipton told Sky News.
Of course, this is “obviously annoying” to sit on the tarmac for two or three hours, he says, but Timpton stresses that it’s “actually for the convenience of passengers.”
Even then there is actually a situation where you would be asked to deboard.
According to Tipton, rules in Europe state passengers must be offered the option to get off the plane after they have been on the tarmac for five hours – however, this very rarely happens.
So sit tight and try and relax... we guess.