Reviving the thread...some of my wife’s clients said when their Saturday evening flights were canceled they were told it was due to solar flares knocking out the satellites. Any of you airline types want to explain to me how that’s not complete and utter ********?
It’s not bull****. Several airlines, including mine are experiencing problems. This from our internal communications: “Lufthansa, Korean, FedEx, UPS, Delta, United, Ryan, Air Canada and several others are apparently affected worldwide. This is only affecting aircraft equipped with Collins GLU-2100 MMR’s. Many regional jet operators also have a significant number of aircraft grounded.” There was a software update to the GPS satellites and it has caused the Collins Multi-Mode Receivers to show a fault. Some of my company’s MD-11s are grounded. Appears that Bombardier and/or Embraer are using Collins equipment. It’s a legitimate problem. I think it’s more an update problem than a solar flare problem.
United cancelled on me for "weather," from IAD to the Gulf Coast a couple years back (can't remember if it was Pensacola or Gulfport/Biloixi) - I was going to visit a family member, a military pilot; jumped over to Airtan, I think; called ahead, and found out it was CAVU at the destination. I think United hadn't sold enough seats. Would have thought lying about maintenance would have been the smarter move.
I'm not an airline type, but I'd be surprised at a solar flare since we are in the minimum part of the solar cycle right now. Flares aren't impossible, but they are much fewer and generally weaker now.
Generally speaking, if they cancel for MX, the airline is on the hook for accommodations if you have to stay overnight. If it's for weather, the airline is not on the hook and you are free to stay in the terminal or pay out-of-pocket for a hotel. I believe it's somewhere in that mile long, small print page of conditions. That's how I ended up staying in Boston a few months ago on Americans dime ....(mx failure and they put everyone up overnight at the Marriott). On another flight with United Express back in January, the flight from Chicago to Peoria was cancelled due to fog and freezing rain issues at KPIA. I was stuck until the following morning and the hotel was on my dime.... Brian
That's probably what they thought it was initially. With it affecting so many airplanes it would seem likely that it was an external problem. Took a while for word to filter down that it was a software issue. Airlines don't cancel flights because of low bookings. The airplanes and crews have to get to the destination for their next flights. You often have weather delays and cancellations on flights with good weather at both the origin and destination. Weather can prevent your airplane or crew from reaching your departure airport or enroute weather can cause ATC to restrict routes which then require airlines to cancel a certain number of flights on those affected routes. You can see updates to the national airspace system at this link: https://www.fly.faa.gov/ois/
I have seen first hand flights into ORD being delayed or cancelled due to storms while ORD itself was severe clear. The reason is the arrival corridors were blocked by the storms, severely reducing flow rates into the hub. And as was said above, airlines don't cancel flights due to lack of passengers. Doing so would disrupt subsequent flights as crew and aircraft would now be out of position, causing even more backups and problems within their network. As long as MX and WX don't get in the way, they fly.
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/collins-gps-outage-grounds-regional-flights-458819/ The FAA said it was "Collins 4000 GPS equipment" and "selected" ADS-B Out devices. Bad software update.
About 20 years ago I had the early run into PIT and the forecast was good for PIT. When we arrived in the area found out they were below mins and no one was landing. Into the hold for 30 minutes then we were told to go to CLE. Couldn't make it in there so then went to ERI. We were doing the USAir connection and the ramp was filling up with EMB's and Dash 8's and we were from different airlines doing the USAir connection. The Dash 8's gave their pax to the EMB's filling us up and the Dash's went on to their next destination so at least they could try to keep to their schedule for the day. When PIT opened up we went there and I believe most of our pax made their connections. Days like that dispatchers and schedulers earn their paychecks.
