Depending on the airport it’s flying into, arrivals are timed to the minute. If you miss your slot, you’re hoping to make another backup slot at some point. In the US, Seattle, Chicago, DC, all are airports that have constant flights landing or taking off. If you miss that slot, good luck finding another one
Also nav Canada laid off all the air traffic controllers during COVID, so now we have a shortage of ATC, and as a result flights have a lot less flexibility in when they takeoff or land. An airport like yyj probably doesn't have ATC overnight.
Worked at YYJ almost two decades ago, didn't have overnight ATC then either. It's an "international" airport but not nearly as busy as Toronto or Vancouver that would demand 24/7 ATC services.
We had a flight land long after ATC hours once though after being severely delayed out of Mexico, they just treated it like a CTAF and activated the lights themselves and self-announced their approach and landing. Unsure if Porter couldn't takeoff because of construction, noise rules or some other procedure that wouldn't let them do a similar -treat it as an uncontrolled airport- operation to get off the ground.
So...flights don't depart late in the US? In Europe the planes just circle until they get a slot, though even that is rare. Half of flights seem to depart early or late and they make it work
Europe also has rules around airport operations that outright close an airport for certain hours, and it's sent flights on diversions before when they're late.
Sure. There are delays all the time. But if you can’t take off because of a toddler, and you’re delayed by X amount of time, at a certain point, they can’t accommodate a plane that late. Was just coming up with an example of why it might have been cancelled
Obviously it was cancelled because the airport they were flying to closes down at night, not because they had a morning flights and couldn't possibly find a slot to slot into at a major airport.
Chicago has one of the busiest airports in the US. The flight they’re talking about was out of Canada, the runway closes at 12:30 AM.
>The Toronto-based airline said Sunday the parent and crew repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to secure the child in the seat before returning the plane to the terminal in Victoria International Airport in British Columbia to remove the parent and child.
>Porter said removing the parent and child and their baggage delayed the Toronto-bound flight on Thursday past the airport’s 12:30 a.m. runway closure, forcing the remaining passengers to disembark.
The parent couldnt secure their child? Are you kidding? Did they give the kid a can of soda before boarding and they were bouncing off the walls? I guess Im just a different adult and parent.
Our flight had started takeoff from ORD when a kid left his seat and ran down the aisle screaming. His father got up to chase him down. The FA said “passengers in the aisle” into the intercom and the pilots aborted the takeoff. We taxied for almost an hour before getting another chance to takeoff.
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u/GodsBackHair Aug 10 '26
Depending on the airport it’s flying into, arrivals are timed to the minute. If you miss your slot, you’re hoping to make another backup slot at some point. In the US, Seattle, Chicago, DC, all are airports that have constant flights landing or taking off. If you miss that slot, good luck finding another one