Why do hundreds of airliners all cross the Atlantic Ocean from the US at the same time each morning?
Why don’t airliners just cross over at any time of the day? What is so special about flying out from the US during the evening, and arriving into to Europe during the early morning? It sounds like a traffic control nightmare. My understanding is that 200 flights make the trip, carrying over 80,000 people, in a period of 2 hours or so.
Av8trxx is quite right. The other issue is also wind. ATC only open the NATS (North Atlantic Track System) at limited hours. That doesn’t stop private business jet flying, and believe me they do!
One of the primary objectives in any flight in any airspace is to avoid the areas of strongest headwind while seeking the areas of strongest tailwind. Over the North Atlantic the predominant westerly winds are found at mid-latitudes, 50 to 55 degrees North. As a consequence of this the westbound flow will normally North or South of this and the eastbound will attempt to fly through it.
Naturally this doesn’t happen on a daily basis but in general this is the hypnosis which lead to the creation of an organised track system. The Eastbound system is open between 1130 – 1800UTC and eastbound 0100 – 0800UTC.
The aircraft are seperated laterally and by speed.
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September 27 2009 05:34 pm | Cross
Ölrún on 27 Sep 2009 at 10:49 pm #
Could have something to do with air currents.
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WK68 on 27 Sep 2009 at 11:38 pm #
If you are flying in the morning an arriving in the evening you’ll have to pay a hotel room for nothing. No matter if it’s a business trip or vacation, you’ll loosing the whole day.
WK68
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Av8trxx on 28 Sep 2009 at 12:18 am #
So you can arrive at a productive time of day. No one wants to get to their destination at night when everything is closed and they must get a hotel (especiially if they managed to sleep on the flight across). Getting there in the AM or mid day if far more preferrable, especially to business travellers.
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billy_ray_sumbich on 28 Sep 2009 at 12:24 am #
simply put, because this is the time passengers want to fly. If everyone wanted to arrive in the evening, the morning flights would not fill, and the airlines would not have them.
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abhi1iscool on 28 Sep 2009 at 12:59 am #
All lanes are going to different places and also that when you leave here in the morning you’ll reach the other side at night or late afternoon. This is because you lose a day when you travel east.
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zanymadpilot on 28 Sep 2009 at 1:08 am #
Av8trxx is quite right. The other issue is also wind. ATC only open the NATS (North Atlantic Track System) at limited hours. That doesn’t stop private business jet flying, and believe me they do!
One of the primary objectives in any flight in any airspace is to avoid the areas of strongest headwind while seeking the areas of strongest tailwind. Over the North Atlantic the predominant westerly winds are found at mid-latitudes, 50 to 55 degrees North. As a consequence of this the westbound flow will normally North or South of this and the eastbound will attempt to fly through it.
Naturally this doesn’t happen on a daily basis but in general this is the hypnosis which lead to the creation of an organised track system. The Eastbound system is open between 1130 – 1800UTC and eastbound 0100 – 0800UTC.
The aircraft are seperated laterally and by speed.
References :
I’m an Airline Transport Pilot, flown the NATS system