Waiting is a terrible feeling, whether one is waiting for an upcoming birthday or for summer to arrive. It’s agreed among people that waiting for something exciting is excruciatingly painful.

Now, imagine having to wait for a plane to take you to paradise. You finally arrive at the gate and all that’s left is about an hour of patiently waiting until you board the aircraft. Minutes go by and bad news looms over as you find out your flight is delayed nine hours. Your family rushes to find new plane tickets for a sooner flight, but amid the chaos, you realize that it’s going to be a long day.

Angry passengers often wonder why the plane is delayed. Why can’t they just find a different plane? Unfortunately, the problems that cause delay can’t be repaired that easily. Airports have a lot of logistics to work out already without new issues in the scheduling. They are responsible for keeping the airplanes clean, getting the airplanes ready for the next flight mechanically, and making sure everything else inside the airport runs smoothly.

So why are airplanes delayed in the first place? The most common and obvious reason is the weather. The weather can affect the flight schedule in three places: the place of departure, the destination airport, or the area the plane must fly through. If the weather at the origin airport is bad, it can affect the plane in multiple ways. Such as thawing the plane if it’s too icy. One might also have to wait for a storm to pass before takeoff because inclement weather makes it too dangerous to depart.

Another reason planes can be delayed is air traffic. After poor the weather gets better, all of the flights are backed up. Therefore, too many planes are trying to depart or land in locations that were previously closed. Sometimes, when planes are backed up, they have to circle around the airport until a free space on the ground is made for them to land. It’s very common to have to circle around the airport. When people are getting dropped off or picked up, the cars cause major traffic, causing the airplanes and airports schedule to get backed up.

Planes and airports are very take many precautions to prepare for  every possible situation. For the apparent fact that air travel relies desperately on technology and that airplanes alone are classified as technology, airports have the right to unlimited time to prepare their technology. As much as technology is designed to help humans, it’s also designed to fail. Murphy’s Law suggests the idea that “If a system can fail, it will fail.” With technology’s known reputation as a glitchy and inconsistent combined with it’s well known history of not working all around the world, it’s more than a valid reason to wait an hour or two for a plane if it means one gets to their destination safely. Better safe than sorry!

Ultimately, lives around the world typically depend on transportation. Whether it’s a bike or plane, everyone needs to get somewhere-and on time. People depend on flights arriving to their destinations on time, so when a flight’s not on time, people tend to get mad. What one might benefit from learning is the what causes these delays: weather, traffic, and technology. When mother nature does her job, it can affect everyone else’s job and life. Air traffic, too, is a major problem in airports all around the world. Just one line of backed up cars at a Milwaukee Airport, could potentially cause flight delays in Europe. Lastly, technology plays a big role in flight delays. With tech everywhere, there’s no question it’s in airports, and with all of its possible fails, it could cause a lot of delays and waiting. Waiting is a painful thing. However, when one is waiting for something good, it’s even worse. Although it seems like an illusion that waiting is for one’s benefit, when one waits, it’s all for the safety of their being.  

Work Cited

“Flight Delay Causes.” Flight Delay Causes. Read Cirrus, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2017

Lim, Capt. “What Causes Flight Delays?” What Causes Flight Delays? EQuilec,n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.