can I find out why a (commercial) flight was cancelled?

[Doc Holliday]

If your theory is that the airlines evaluate the load on each flight and then decide whether or not to operate it, you are mistaken. They do evaluate routes, but those decisions are not made on the spur of the moment, and route changes would cause the flight to be unavailable for sale. No one would show up at the airport and hear bogus cancellation stories when a poor performing route is ended.

Also, they are carrying freight. Some estimates say 10-25% of the revenue is from freight. Even a light load (passenger-wise) can cover its operating cost and not disrupt schedules. Disrupting schedules adds more cost than operating the flight at zero or negative profit.

Here’s something else to consider. Airline aircraft are maintained on a progressive maintenance system. Maintenance planning goes into deciding when a certain airframe will arrive at a maintenance station, and how much time it needs during a layover to accomplish an inspection. Throw a monkey wrench into this, such as a weather delay or cancellation, and it dominoes through the fleet. The airlines want those airplanes to arrive and depart on schedule, or it becomes a real nightmare.

 

[Larry in TN]

100% agree. I had the fortune of flying airplanes burning Jet-A that didn't have GPS.

Same here. My first jets were the DC8, as an F/E for a year, and the DC9 for 11+ years.

The DC8s, at the time, had dual VOR, single or dual ADF, and a Loran-C based long-range navigator. The DC9s had dual VOR, single ADF, and a heading bug.

 

[Doc Holliday]

The DC9s had dual VOR, single ADF, and a heading bug.

Did you fly the DC9 that had the weird HSI instrument? I remember jumpseating and seeing one of those years ago.

 

[Tarheelpilot]

The guys who supposedly have 121 experience often tell us on these threads that the pilots and mechanics don't use pretextual reasons to cancel flights during contact disputes. So either they don't actually know how it works, or they conceal the truth. Either way, it tends to devalue their contributions.

I don’t cancel or delay in the interest of “safety” when negotiations are sour. I am not a union man. In my opinion no one has my back but me. Not the union and not management. I can guarantee you that there are some that do. I’ve seen it first hand.

 

[kayoh190]

But it happens, and some deny that it ever does.

Perhaps I missed it, but I've never seen anyone deny that it ever does. Obviously there are those with a burn it down mentality - they exist in every industry. I don't consider myself a veteran by any means (especially compared to many here on PoA), but I'm not a newbie either, and the vast majority of people I've worked with have always done the very best job possible for the airline and passengers - even during contract negotiations.

 

[Larry in TN]

Did you fly the DC9 that had the weird HSI instrument? I remember jumpseating and seeing one of those years ago.

Yeah, and it had an RMI right next to it!

Here it is!

 

[Doc Holliday]

There was one that predated the HSI (such as the one in your pic). I've been trying to find a pic of it.

The DC-9, or otherwise known as the "Long Beach Cable Car".

 

[KSCessnaDriver]

Yeah, and it had an RMI right next to it!

Here it is!

I miss flying the DC-9. It had character, yet wasn't super difficult as a first jet. We had 6 planes, all 6 of them had a different cockpit in some way.