What airports have inevitable holding patterns on approach? Which are more rare?
Whenever I look at Flightradar24 into lhr, the flights always to be put into a pattern.
Rarely happens at LAX.
Weather, of course, plays a big factor. Wha are other examples?
Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
Re: Airports with most/ least holding patterns
LHR for nearly every plane, true flight time rom Amsterdam to London is nearly as long as the time spend in the hold above london (and taxiing to the Polderbaan).
Amsterdam has one very clear just out of the coast near Haarlem, nearly always a few planes holding there.
LGW is another, nearly all planes have to take a extra lap over southeastern England.
Amsterdam has one very clear just out of the coast near Haarlem, nearly always a few planes holding there.
LGW is another, nearly all planes have to take a extra lap over southeastern England.
Re: Airports with most/ least holding patterns
DXB can be unbelievably long. JFK during thunderstorms can be an hour plus
Re: Airports with most/ least holding patterns
DXB can be unbelievably long. JFK during thunderstorms can be an hour plus
Re: Airports with most/ least holding patterns
Any NYC area airports (EWR, LGA, JFK), ORD, LHR, PVG, and PEK can have long holding times, especially if there are thunderstorms nearby.
Non-hub airports almost always have no holding time.
Non-hub airports almost always have no holding time.
-
- fbgdavidson
- Posts: 3944
- Joined:
Re: Airports with most/ least holding patterns
Definitely LHR. More often than not I find myself in a holding pattern coming into LHR, particularly in the mornings. Similar at LGW but not nearly as frequent.
Have to say I live near JFK and it's my home airport. Have arrived into it about twice a month on average in the 4yrs I've been here and cannot once recall a holding pattern local to the airport. Haven't arrived into many thunderstorms that I can recall...I'll usually find that one of the following occurs:
-Put into a the holding pattern far away (have circled a couple of times over Maine for example when coming in from Europe on more than one occassion)
-Ground hold at origin point
-Slightly circuitous route in when nearer JFK but this was more along the lines of joining traffic for a standard arrival pattern for a given runway rather than an LHR "stack" or paperclip pattern. I've had similar with approaches into LGA.
That said I do monitor FR24 quite a bit when the weather goes south and there are some frequent hold spots that I see, out on eastern Long Island there is a paperclip track close to where the North and South forks comes together that the aircraft from across the pond use. I think the JFK area is for obvious reasons, too congested to have the typical stacks and holding patterns that close to the airport. The Ockham, Bovingdon, Lambourne and Biggin holds aren't interfering that much with other local traffic although they are pretty close to LHR.
Have to say I live near JFK and it's my home airport. Have arrived into it about twice a month on average in the 4yrs I've been here and cannot once recall a holding pattern local to the airport. Haven't arrived into many thunderstorms that I can recall...I'll usually find that one of the following occurs:
-Put into a the holding pattern far away (have circled a couple of times over Maine for example when coming in from Europe on more than one occassion)
-Ground hold at origin point
-Slightly circuitous route in when nearer JFK but this was more along the lines of joining traffic for a standard arrival pattern for a given runway rather than an LHR "stack" or paperclip pattern. I've had similar with approaches into LGA.
That said I do monitor FR24 quite a bit when the weather goes south and there are some frequent hold spots that I see, out on eastern Long Island there is a paperclip track close to where the North and South forks comes together that the aircraft from across the pond use. I think the JFK area is for obvious reasons, too congested to have the typical stacks and holding patterns that close to the airport. The Ockham, Bovingdon, Lambourne and Biggin holds aren't interfering that much with other local traffic although they are pretty close to LHR.
Re: Airports with most/ least holding patterns
LGA can be brutal especially on days where the weather is bad.
Re: Airports with most/ least holding patterns
Every single time I've flown into LHR we were put in a hold. Most recently it caused me to miss my onward flight. 
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 39 guests