That number would have ballooned to more than 30 percent without the extra padding. “It’s just like a person driving to a location early to account for unexpected traffic or delays.”īut even with the extra padding, more than 20 percent of flights were delayed in 2022. “Padding is nothing more than programming in extra time to the actual flight time to account for variables,” he said. “Padding schedules is a common practice across all modes of transportation, especially in the airline industry where external factors like air traffic control, aircraft maintenance and weather conditions can significantly impact the departure and arrival times, leading to constant changes,” said Jeff Price, professor at the Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science at Metropolitan State University of Denver. In 2012, they added eight minutes, meaning padding time has increased by 27 percent in 10 years. On a typical two-hour flight, carriers add around 11 minutes to a flight schedule to counteract delays. On average, airlines are padding their scheduled flight times by just over 10 percent, according to FinanceBuzz. The report caught my attention because Harry Reid International Airport was listed as the eighth-most affected airport in the nation for flight padding, with Southwest Airlines - which flies roughly one-third of all commercial airline passengers to and from Las Vegas - as the biggest offender of padding schedules. That’s when airlines build in extra time in their flight schedules to make their on time arrival statistics look better than they are. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye Las Vegas Review-Journal) finance site FinanceBuzz recently published a report about airline flight padding, or “schedule creep.” Passengers look at flight departure and arrival information on electronic monitors in Terminal 1 of Harry Reid International Airport, on Friday, April 21, 2023, in Las Vegas.
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