Vroege begin Daylight Savings Time/mogelijke problemen
Geplaatst: 09 mar 2007, 17:37
International fliers could get clocked by early jump to daylight savings time
This year's earlier-than-usual arrival of daylight savings time in the USA could spell trouble for travelers flying on international routes, The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports. The paper writes that "thanks to an impending disconnect between European and U.S. clocks, cross-continental fliers whose trips entail connections within or beyond the U.S. may find it harder to get a convenient connection and may need to schedule long layovers... "
For example, the Journal cites connections on American Airlines for passengers traveling from Madrid through Miami. The Madrid flight typically lands in Miami at 3:05 p.m. local time, but -– with the USA’s early jump ahead -– it will temporarily land at 4:05 p.m. local time until Europe also springs its clocks forward. For fliers, that makes catching the 4:35 p.m. flight to Houston –- usually not a problem -– all but impossible. Another tight connection looms for Madrid travelers hoping to connect to to Bogota, Colombia, on AA's 5:20 p.m. flight. The usual 2-hour layover on that route now gets whittled down to about an hour.
"So," the Journal asks, "why can't U.S. airlines simply move up the departure time of their flights originating in Europe, ensuring that passengers can get better connections?" The paper notes that doing so "is difficult because of strict 'use it or lose it' rules regarding time slots at European airports. U.S. airlines have little flexibility to adjust their schedules because if they did, they could risk losing control over a valuable time slot at busy hubs, according to the Air Transport Association, a trade organization for U.S. airlines." Similar scheduling problems also exist in Asia, experts say.
How big a problem will air travelers really face once U.S. clocks make their early jump ahead on Sunday? John Hansman, a professor of aeronautics and the head of MIT's International Center for Air Transportation, sums it up like this: "Any change creates some sort of disturbance in the system. How significant is this compared with a snowstorm at JFK? I would say this is not as big of a deal."
This year's earlier-than-usual arrival of daylight savings time in the USA could spell trouble for travelers flying on international routes, The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports. The paper writes that "thanks to an impending disconnect between European and U.S. clocks, cross-continental fliers whose trips entail connections within or beyond the U.S. may find it harder to get a convenient connection and may need to schedule long layovers... "
For example, the Journal cites connections on American Airlines for passengers traveling from Madrid through Miami. The Madrid flight typically lands in Miami at 3:05 p.m. local time, but -– with the USA’s early jump ahead -– it will temporarily land at 4:05 p.m. local time until Europe also springs its clocks forward. For fliers, that makes catching the 4:35 p.m. flight to Houston –- usually not a problem -– all but impossible. Another tight connection looms for Madrid travelers hoping to connect to to Bogota, Colombia, on AA's 5:20 p.m. flight. The usual 2-hour layover on that route now gets whittled down to about an hour.
"So," the Journal asks, "why can't U.S. airlines simply move up the departure time of their flights originating in Europe, ensuring that passengers can get better connections?" The paper notes that doing so "is difficult because of strict 'use it or lose it' rules regarding time slots at European airports. U.S. airlines have little flexibility to adjust their schedules because if they did, they could risk losing control over a valuable time slot at busy hubs, according to the Air Transport Association, a trade organization for U.S. airlines." Similar scheduling problems also exist in Asia, experts say.
How big a problem will air travelers really face once U.S. clocks make their early jump ahead on Sunday? John Hansman, a professor of aeronautics and the head of MIT's International Center for Air Transportation, sums it up like this: "Any change creates some sort of disturbance in the system. How significant is this compared with a snowstorm at JFK? I would say this is not as big of a deal."
