Why do planes wait to take off? Lufthansa pilots flying an Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger plane, told air traffic control in San Francisco they'd file a report after waiting about 17 minutes to take off last week.
The flight was LH459 from San Francisco to Munich on October 9. According to air traffic control audio posted online and reported by One Mile at a Time, the A380 sat at the end of the runway while a steady stream of arriving planes landed, with no gap for it to take off.
Lufthansa · San Francisco
17 Minutes at the End of the Runway
Contrail
What the Pilots Said
Once airborne, the crew asked the departure controller, "Is there any coordination during approach and tower for takeoff? We had a 17 minute wait and no gap for takeoff." Earlier, the tower had told them it was "pretty booked on final," meaning the line of planes coming in to land was full.
The controller suggested they raise it with the tower next time. The pilots replied that they would "still write a report and ask these questions," adding, "It costs tons of fuel." Lufthansa and the FAA hadn't publicly responded to the exchange as of Wednesday.
Why Planes Wait at the End of the Runway
When your plane stops short of the runway and sits there, it's usually waiting for a gap. A runway can only be used by one plane at a time, so if arrivals and departures share it, controllers have to fit takeoffs between landings. When arrivals are lined up close together, there's simply no room.
San Francisco makes this especially tricky. In its usual setup, planes land on two parallel runways while most departures use two other runways that cross them, according to FAA planning documents. Big, heavy long-haul jets like the A380 often need the longer runway, which is also one that planes are landing on. That means a superjumbo heading to Europe has to squeeze in between arrivals.
It's been a rough year for the airport, too. The FAA restricted side-by-side landings at SFO in March, and one of its runways was closed for repaving until early October, which cut how many planes could land each hour and pushed delays up. Some of those limits have since been eased.
Fair Complaint or Overreaction?
The pilots have a point about fuel. An A380 has four engines, and every minute it idles burns fuel the airline pays for. But a 17-minute wait at a busy US airport isn't unusual, and building gaps into a stream of arrivals has its own costs, since it can mean holding landing planes in the air longer.
For passengers, there's one reassuring takeaway. When you're stuck at the end of the runway, it's rarely anything wrong with your plane. It's usually a traffic jam you can't see.
