Over the past years, and in particular post-pandemic, airlines have increasingly incorporated buffer times into their flight schedules and we can see a growing number of flights departing late but still arriving on-time. Whereas this strategy is a response to market, geopolitical and legislative pressures (e.g. EU261 Passenger Rights legislation on financial compensation in case of long delays on arrival at the final destination), an excessive use of buffers can have a counterproductive impact. A high share of early arrivals can create demand/capacity imbalances, resulting in an overall deterioration of Network efficiency.
The latest European Aviation Trends paper looks in detail at how scheduling practices have evolved over recent years, providing an insight into how challenging and difficult a balancing act this is.