Are airlines allowed to move up the time of a flight?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 24 Jul, 2023
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Airlines will bump up a departure time if they feel they can get the plane out earlier. It helps their on-time performance stats and gets everyone to their destination a little earlier.
But this is done only when they are certain everyone will be onboard earlier. The decision would likely be based on 1) all originating passengers have checked in XX minutes before the flight 2) all flights with connecting passengers have arrived at the airport XX minutes before the flight 3) the aircraft is at the gate cleaned and fueled before the new boarding time commences.
In addition the airline needs to get clearance from Air Traffic Control for an earlier pushback, departure and arrival slot.
So it is not something they do on a whim and wouldn’t be done if there was risk of leaving passengers behind.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘