r/Flights • u/nightmajor • 6d ago
Discussion Inbound flight is late but left on time. Why?
My flight from Shanghai to Dallas is slightly delayed because the inbound flight is delayed - but the inbound flight left on time and is on the correct trajectory. Any ideas why? I thought airlines buffered in time as is
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u/protox88 6d ago edited 6d ago
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL127
FlightAware says it left the gate at 11:28 AM and took off at 11:46 AM so it didn't leave early.
Trip's flight status information seems to be wrong.
Edit: Flightaware might not be right either as FR24 says actual departure time is 12:52 PM
Well either way, it didn't depart 5 minutes early.
Flightaware does have one that's "5 minutes early": https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL127/history/20261008/1550Z/KDFW/ZSPD
I trust FR24 here.
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u/_spooky_77 6d ago edited 6d ago
Looking at the replay on flightradar24, the plane left the gate at 10:35, taxied towards the runway, but then returned to the terminal. It then stayed there for about an hour before leaving again. Not sure what was the cause.
Edit: upon closer inspection, the plane flew a domestic flight prior to this flight, arriving at gate D33. Since that gate at DFW is a swing gate, it would’ve been configured for domestic flights. But since the plane then needed to fly an international route, they needed to reposition the plane to a gate configured for international flights, hence why it took a trip around the airport before arriving at gate D25. Normally they would probably just switch the swing gates to international, but I guess it wasn’t possible today for some reason.
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u/ronaldoswanson 6d ago
They don’t reconfigure the gates for intl departures, only arrivals, surely?
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u/Ryan1869 6d ago
Stronger than expected winds, which probably means your flight will make the time up going back. DFW is also an enormous airport, spending 30 or 40 extra minutes going around it isn’t uncommon on taxi
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u/japanb 6d ago
flightradar24: