Well this has never happened to me before - and I don't like it.

[Timeforatincture]

19:30 flight from Lanzarote ponced about for ages on the tarmac then threw us all off at 23:30. No offer of accommodation or any indication of time of replacement flight. At least a cafe is open (poor sod at the till) and we had a bottle of gin. You had this?

No I doubt it’s that

The weight/payload you can takeoff with from a given runway varies depends on a host of variables, for example one of which is wind strength and direction, another is temperature, there are others.

At airports where performance is tight (typically but not always short runways with adjacent terrain) it’s not uncommon for the ground staff to run a performance calculation, maybe before the aircraft lands, to work what they can prepare to load…the flight crew will also run their own independent calculations as a cross check.

The margin between allowable weight and the actual loaded weight at some airports, on some runways, in some circumstance can be such that a small shift in environmental conditions from say a 5 knot headwind to a 2 or 3 knot tailwind that in the worse case might happen as you taxi out can suddenly make takeoff impossible, and if you try it, certainly illegal.

The above is not that common these days with modern aircraft performance but it does still happen.

Hope so much you are all home soon. I'd have started on daytime drinking by now.

Why do people make stuff like this up 😂

I would be if I was only responsible for my child but I'm not!

But my favourite (worst!) was the last who'd been diverted with 1000's of others due to 9/11 who was more interested in who was going to pay for the clean thing she needed to buy.

Have you seen Come from Away @itsgettingweird? That shows the lovely side of passengers’ reactions to 9/11 diversions. It’s fantastic, there is a filmed performance on Apple TV if you didn’t get the chance to see the show live.

If they had to change takeoff route because of the wind then they would have different weight limits. So not too heavy to take off one way without mountain but too heavy to go the other way. If an engine fails on take off you have to have enough lift to Keep going and that's tricky if there's a mountain in the way. My brother does this for a living usually around cities where people put up cranes in the flight path!

Sorry @Hopingforsome sunshine it was the thread you answered that I was answering. You basically said the same as I did.

Rubbish.

Lanzarote has a weight restriction on one particular runway if take off is in one direction.

The weight would be fuel. If they expect to use a different runway/different direction they would fuel as usual. If that changes due to wind or weather the aircraft would be overweight. If they knew of advance they would minimum fuel and make a refueling stop which is not uncommon out of the Canaries (and other airports including Madeira). Faro is usually used as the intermediate fuel stop out of Lanzarote.

It's a horrible situation to be in .Airports are so uncomfortable these days especially smaller ones like Lanzarote. My friends and I were returning from Portugal just having coffee in the airport when it became obvious that there was some crisis on as we could here people shouting at tge Easyjet check in . Turns out that a flight was completely cancelled but even worse the next flight was not for another 3 days ! Met a young woman who was travelling with a toddler , baby and her older parents. Couldn't go back to the villa they booked , not enough formula for baby , not enough medication for the parents. Plus everyone else on the flight were on phones looking for alternatives and she couldn't get anything. Felt so so sorry for her .

Pilots def only tell you what you need to hear and when.

we knew we were flying into a storm in the uk and knew there were loads of cancellations etc Pilot told us just before landing what his plan was. Bumpy landing but safe.

Yep…there’s a fine line to be walked.

Some passengers would like to get chapter and verse regarding any event/delay, including jargon, but many passengers eye’s glaze over at anything lasting more than a couple of minutes, especially if it is too technical and there’s also a danger of some phrases and terminology really frightening the nervous flyers….

Making a succinct, informative announcement in the often very limited time available that keeps everyone satisfied can be a challenge..and of course these days there’s a chance of the announcement being recorded and it being on SM before the speaker has put the handset down

I thought it sounded like the PP's thought it was a general fuck-up, as in no left-hand/right-hand comms, rather than on purpose.
But either way it's still bloody infuriating.
(as someone who was on an Easyjet flight from Stansted to Geneva which was unable to land due to no slots at Geneva ski season, duh so the plane turned round mid-air, landed at Lyon and just dumped, yes dumped, all the passengers there to fend for themselves. Still furious about the lies and total lack of responsibility.)

I spent 15 hours in a tiny airport last year with a baby and 2 year old, didnt have any other adult with me. Luckily we got coffee and food vouchers but couldn't even make baby food.

It happens and it's rubbish. Bear in mind that ryanair (if you're flying with them) pay decent compensation for a long delay. I even got the infant compensated. When I tell the story now I always say it was my most lucrative days work as I ended up with €750 in my bank account and pretty fast, no hassle etc

Paying compensation for the infant was not a gesture Ryanair made out of goodwill. They had a legal obligation to pay it.

It would be much more useful to know who the airline is.

BA's Gatwick operation as is clear from early posts.

Yes, i know. The point is, lessons were learnt about attempting to fly in adverse conditions
So don't moan if weather stops take-off!

Fascinating. I think the whole concept of flight is pretty awesome.

A good many years ago I was at an airport in Switzerland, sitting in my seat waiting for the plane to depart. There had been a small change in the weather and we waited while they reloaded some of the cargo. This was in the days when the captain would interact with the passengers. As he walked through the plane later I asked him what small change they had made to enable us to take off. He explained that due to cross-winds, they were concerned whether we would gather sufficient height to clear the mountains. In order to ensure safety was not compromised, a quantity of cave-matured Gruyere they were carrying was replaced with some Emmental. Apparently, the holes in the Emmental made the cheese lighter and that made all the difference, allowing us to depart safely.

In my mind that is 1-0 up to the gentle Simmental cow in favour of corporate profits.

A good story about Ryanair. Delayed in Malaga then cancelled. After a queue of a good few hours we were called to a side desk. We were asked if a flight in a few days would be ok for us (we are retired and must look it lol!). Yes, no problem. Given a taxi to a 4star hotel food voucher and taxi back to airport for our replacement return flight which was three days later. I think priority for the next available flights was given to people with kids or who needed to be back home asap.

I can't remember if we got compo, but I don't think so as the issue was AFAIR air traffic control strikes in France or something. But the extra days were great and didn't cost us anything really. This was pre Covid. Ryanair is not always bad news. But for every good story I suppose there are many bad ones.

Hope you get back OK and baby wipes are great for "washing" in an emergency 😊

I

Surely the pilot was just having you on about the holes in the cheese? 🧀

Although they may have had to offload cargo, doubt they had a handy pallet of emmental needing flown to same destination instead?

As long as the holes in the cheese didn't line up.....

@Talonz - either you are pulling our legs or the Captain was pulling yours.

The Swiss cheese model ( Dr James Reason) is well known in explaining why aircraft accidents happen.

There are nearly always a number of issues (holes in the Swiss cheese) contributing to an accident. When all these line up, (combination of factors) an accident can occur.

Snap @Bromptotoo

In order to ensure safety was not compromised, a quantity of cave-matured Gruyere they were carrying was replaced with some Emmental. Apparently, the holes in the Emmental made the cheese lighter and that made all the difference, allowing us to depart safely.

He was yanking your chain.

🤣🤣🤣 very good.