Flight times Syd-Mel
 

Looked at webtrack today as son flew to Melbourne

Shows take off of DJ #810 at 7.30 am and landing in Melbourne at 9.30(webtrack time) What does a plane do for 2 hours

It seems that many flights are taking this period of time. How can anybody accept thsi

I noticed on Flightradar 24 that there were some MEL bound flights in holding patterns. There was a QF flight from ADL that would have been delayed by quite some time.

Maybe was put in a holding pattern?

I have an iPhone app called Flight Track Pro. It shows DJ810 as departing SYD at 7.20am and states it left gate 5 mins late.

It then shows an arrival into MEL of 9.36am and states it arrived at gate 46 mins late.

This is now standard sort of stuff around the domestic network Peter! And thats on a good morning!

For example, on a Melbourne to Sydney sector, there is 20 minutes of Air Traffic Holding fuel that is required at all times - this increases to 25+ minutes at some times of the day.

If MEL or SYD goes to single runway operations you're looking at 40 minutes plus.

There is also the issue of the 80 movements per hour cap in Sydney, and the use of Runway 34R.

So, for a SYD - MEL sector with northerly winds in Sydney, you're looking at 15+ minutes of taxi time, then waiting at the holding point for other aircraft/movement cap (add a good 10 minutes), your flight which takes about 1:05 (plus about 8 minutes added to do the world's silliest departure out to the east), then say 10 minutes of traffic delay in Melbourne, 10 minute taxi... and you're already at 1:58 for the sector.

It doesn't take much!

Plus Some big storms in Melbourne/victoria overnight and earlier this morning and most flights were arriving late!

Airlines as a group keep scheduling multiple aeroplanes to arrive at the same time.
Only one aeroplane can use a runway at a time.
Someone has to wait!

Out of interest is there a website which shows which times of day YSSY reaches its cap of 80 movements an hour?

I doubt there would be a site showing this as it changes from day to day but in general most mornings during week-days and a few evening periods are very close or at capacity. The movement cap is enforced by this mob, might be worth checking out their site for more info (particulalry the coordinaation guidelines section).

http://www.coordaus.com.au

Detailed statistics are found here:

http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/...al-statistics/

For the September report look at page 10 of the PDF (Page 8 if using the page numbers on the page). If you look further you can also see that someone in Kellyville clearly has way too much time on their hands.

Thanks Robert.

From that report the peak average usage is 68 movements an hour between 8am and 9am in the morning. I thought from reading what others have posted here the 80 movements an hour cap is an artificial cap. That is the physical capacity of the airport is higher?