This summer, as I sat on the tarmac at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) and prepared to take off JetBlue’s first flight from New England to London, the pilot arrived with short notice of the delay via the intercom; but that’s good news.
You see, we were hit with a very strong headwind and very well on schedule, a quick takeoff would have put us in trouble. London Gatwick Airport (LGW) too early, violating the overnight flight curfew there. So we have to wait a bit. It may have delayed the flight by 15 minutes, but we still arrived at Gatwick Airport 15 minutes early.
TPG managing editor for news Clint Henderson had a much more inconvenient experience. Finally boarded a Boeing 777-300 on the tarmac at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in 2018 after numerous delays. He was wearing his business-class pajamas when what seemed like a rather innocuous hiccup before a long-haul flight to Hong Kong that snowed so quickly. The luggage is still not on the train.
“The passengers were fully loaded,” Henderson said. “But not luggage.”
That normally small delay puts the plane at risk of landing in the middle of a flight curfew in Hong Kong. Not wanting to risk a breach, the airline decided to cancel the flight, said Henderson.
But what exactly are these “curfews” and how might they affect the international flight you’re taking? Here are a few things to know.
What is the flight curfew?
Night flight restrictions, or curfews, are in place at quite a few airports abroad, especially in Europe. Some rules have been around for a long time, but they have become more common in recent years.
As the name suggests, a curfew is a rule for flights at night.
Specifically, it’s a ban or limit on take-offs and landings — well, at least on scheduled flights — between late night and early morning.
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Typically, these restrictions tend to go into effect an hour or two before midnight and last until about 4 to 7 a.m.
The rules often don’t eliminate late-night and early-morning takeoffs and landings entirely, but seek to keep them to a minimum.
Why does a curfew exist?
The sound produced by jet engines is a common driving force behind night flight restrictions.
“You have people living around the airport complaining about noise,” Dan Bubb, a former airline pilot and now a professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, told TPG. “Airports want to be good neighbors, they don’t want to be noisy neighbors, they don’t want to be bad neighbors.”
But of course, air travel is 24/7 and “an important part of the operation at airports around the world”, according to the website of London Heathrow Airport (LHR), one of the largest airports in the world. The world’s largest airliner, and one with limited night flying.
And some people feel these rules are too burdensome.
“It puts a lot of unnecessary stress on the pilots,” says Bubb, noting that, as a former pilot, he worries about pilots having to think about “smashing copper.” lake” as he said.
There are exceptions for emergencies
Don’t worry, a curfew is unlikely to keep your plane flying around for hours on end or keep your pilot from landing in an emergency.
In general, airports have exceptions to the curfew rule during emergencies and sometimes, even during delays, such as during bad weather.
For example, in the UK, the government can make exceptions to allow more flights to take off or land at night if the delay is likely to lead to severe congestion at the airport (or passengers have difficulties due to their itinerary being changed).
Where does the curfew apply?
There are many airports abroad with some type of night flight restriction, often imposed and enforced by a combination of federal, local, and airport authorities.
In addition to regulations at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick Airports and Stansted Airport (STN) there is also a nighttime curfew.
As an example of how such a system might work, Heathrow operates on a “night quota period” from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., during which times there are limits on the number of times. take-off and landing of aircraft set by the UK Department for Transport. The rules typically allow an average of 15 planes to take off or land per night.
Airports in Budapest and Zurich also have restrictions on night flights, and quite a few airports across Germany have curfews, including Frankfurt Airport (FRA).
It’s not just Europe, either. Sydney Airport (SYD) in Australia is one of the restricted runways at night. The rules there apply from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
In the United States, while some airports have set of rules or guidelines around late-night and early-morning aircraft noise, restrictions are not common at all, especially since the passage of the law. 1990 restricts the majority of US airports from releasing new noise-based operational restrictions.
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) just outside the nation’s capital is a place where a “unique” noise regulation is in effect, enacted after the law was passed in 1990. Airport authorities can impose penalties for aircraft that operate too loudly between 10pm and 6:59am
Another US example is in California, where John Wayne Airport (SNA) is located in Orange County. a restriction on most arrivals and departures for many hours overnight because of noise concerns.
However, the airport pointed out that this is definitely Not curfew, and “the majority” of aircraft operating at Reagan during those hours complied.
How could a curfew affect your flight?
If all goes well with your flight timings, you’ll probably never notice the effects of the airport curfew. After all, flights are scheduled to comply with the restrictions.
As I’ve discovered, you can get a brief delay on your overnight flight to Europe if you run ahead of time; that most likely happened on a flight departing from the East Coast in the early evening.
You may experience much more severe disruptions, though if your plans are delayed enough to take off or land after the “quiet hour” begins. That can happen on a long-haul flight to an overseas destination or a short trip in Europe.
“The airline may choose to cancel the flight and rebook the passenger on the next day flight,” explains Bubb.
bottom line
While planes operate 24/7 around the globe, curfews are still prevalent in some parts of the world — Europe in particular. The curfew puts a limit on when planes can take off or land. A curfew will not prevent a plane from landing in an emergency. However, they do explain the timings of some flights and why late night delays can lead to much longer journey disruptions while abroad.
