Around 20 passengers were removed from a British Airways flight from Florence’s Amerigo Vespucci airport to London City Airport on Aug. 11, to reduce the aircraft's weight before takeoff.
It’s often not just the heat, but also wind direction both at the airport and enroute. They probably plan for some combination of the three, but not worse case on all at once.
Headwinds on takeoff mean you can takeoff with more mass. Tailwinds, crosswinds, and higher temperatures mean you can carry less mass.
Tailwinds enroute mean you get a higher groundspeed for a given airspeed and arrive earlier, having burnt less fuel. If the tailwinds are known before departure, you can carry less fuel (less mass) and thus more payload (passengers).
There is nothing you can do to ‘prepare’ other than sell fewer tickets (and thus leave the flight unnecessarily empty on days when there isn’t adverse weather) or use a bigger plane that still needs to be lightly loaded.
I mean I’m sure that there was a good reason, but planes never take off in tailwinds, they change the active runway and take off in the other direction. Wind direction enroute can be a problem, but I don’t see how that isn’t factored in, you usually get pretty good reports days ahead. And they specifically quoted the temperature.
Commercial planes often take off in mild tailwinds; they’re typically certified for 10-15kt of tailwind. It’s sometimes easier for the airport than re-sequencing all the flights especially if it’s only a mild tailwind.
Florence has hills to one side (the west?) that mean taking off in that direction also carries a performance penalty because you need good engine-out climb rates. So it can be a choice of tailwind or hills.
It’s all statistics. If you’re never getting surprised by the weather, you are probably leaving money on the table. If it’s happening all the time, you’re selling too many seats.
It will also depend on how far out the last seat was sold.
Is 35C extreme heat that BA does not prepare for in Florence in August?
It’s often not just the heat, but also wind direction both at the airport and enroute. They probably plan for some combination of the three, but not worse case on all at once.
Headwinds on takeoff mean you can takeoff with more mass. Tailwinds, crosswinds, and higher temperatures mean you can carry less mass.
Tailwinds enroute mean you get a higher groundspeed for a given airspeed and arrive earlier, having burnt less fuel. If the tailwinds are known before departure, you can carry less fuel (less mass) and thus more payload (passengers).
There is nothing you can do to ‘prepare’ other than sell fewer tickets (and thus leave the flight unnecessarily empty on days when there isn’t adverse weather) or use a bigger plane that still needs to be lightly loaded.
I mean I’m sure that there was a good reason, but planes never take off in tailwinds, they change the active runway and take off in the other direction. Wind direction enroute can be a problem, but I don’t see how that isn’t factored in, you usually get pretty good reports days ahead. And they specifically quoted the temperature.
Commercial planes often take off in mild tailwinds; they’re typically certified for 10-15kt of tailwind. It’s sometimes easier for the airport than re-sequencing all the flights especially if it’s only a mild tailwind.
Florence has hills to one side (the west?) that mean taking off in that direction also carries a performance penalty because you need good engine-out climb rates. So it can be a choice of tailwind or hills.
It’s all statistics. If you’re never getting surprised by the weather, you are probably leaving money on the table. If it’s happening all the time, you’re selling too many seats.
It will also depend on how far out the last seat was sold.