Tropical From United Kingdom, joined Dec 2008, 81 posts, RR: 0 Posted (4 years 5 months 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 2107 times:
Hello everybody. After lurking for many years this is my very first post on a.net (so be gentle ). I did do a search on the subject but didn't notice anything that answered my question.
I fly to MAD a few times a year- sometimes with BA. Since T4 was opened, I've noticed that very often we were assigned the very last gate at the terminal. This despite the fact that there were countless empty and unused gates next to it.
As those who've used T4 might have noticed, the terminal (the satellite building in this case, but no different from the main one) is a very long one. And every time I've found myself walking for nearly 10 minutes from the gate at the very end of the terminal to the middle part, where passport control and the transfer train to the main building is found. The walk is not aided by the sight of dozens upon dozens of empty gates, many of them a lot closer to the exit.
So who is responsible for assigning the gate in such situations? If it is BA itself, is it to do with saving fuel? If so, I wonder if the money they save is lost elsewhere as lost revenue. Practically every time this happens I've heard murmurs of complaint from fellow passengers about the distances required to walk when the terminal is empty.
Or if it is the airport assigning that gate, what would their reasons be for doing so?
PanAm747 From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 4242 posts, RR: 10 Reply 1, posted (4 years 5 months 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 1903 times:
Gate assignments at hub airports are usually assigned WELL in advance, although the logic in their system is like the logic of a computer: nobody except their creator truly understands it - and even then I'm not sure!!
Years ago when AA had only two terminals at DFW - and LONG before the SkyLink was available - the joke for connecting pax was that gate assignments were made to require people to walk/job/run the longest possible distance. Connecting to American Eagle at gate one A-Z in the northern terminal (1E?)? You'll be arriving at gate 47 at terminal 2E. Oh, and the TrAAm will be closed for repairs. RUN!!!!!
Pan Am:The World's Most Experienced Airline - P(oor) S(ailor's) A(irline): San Diego's Hometown Airline-Catch Our Smile!
Apodino From United States of America, joined Apr 2005, 3634 posts, RR: 6 Reply 2, posted (4 years 5 months 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 1817 times:
Quoting Tropical (Thread starter): As those who've used T4 might have noticed, the terminal (the satellite building in this case, but no different from the main one) is a very long one. And every time I've found myself walking for nearly 10 minutes from the gate at the very end of the terminal to the middle part, where passport control and the transfer train to the main building is found. The walk is not aided by the sight of dozens upon dozens of empty gates, many of them a lot closer to the exit.
Since when does T4 have a satellite terminal? I thought it was just the one terminal with very short walks to all the gates? And I thought BA was out of there now, and that it was used by SkyTeam?
Gate assignments are dynamic by nature too. For example. lets say that you are flying into ORD from FAR on a United Express flight. The next flight the plane is supposed to make up is an ATW flight. The flight is scheduled to depart from F11. Now lets say that Skywest has a plane go tech in LNK, that was supposed to do a flight to MKE that leaves from gate B22. Since it is scheduled to leave eariler, SkyWest may elect to use the plane from FAR to do the MKE flight instead of ATW. Because of that, instead of arriving at gate F11, they will have the flight pull into B22, to avoid moving all the passengers. (And believe me, B22 to F11 is a long distance to move passengers)
EMB170 From United States of America, joined Nov 2007, 635 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (4 years 5 months 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 1781 times:
Also it has to do with the type of aircraft on which you're flying and the way the jetbridges at the airport are hung. Keep in mind in many airports not every jetbridge can hook up to every kind of aircraft...and it may just be there are only a couple of gates that can fit your plane.
Can passenger jets fly as fast as my feet do? Let's find out...
In this case that would not apply. The planes had either been A320s or 737s, and those gates can take heavies. I can only imagine it's at BA's request and it is to do with saving fuel during taxiing, as the gate in question is the nearest one to the taxiways (if approached from a certain end).
I couldn't find a representative picture, but it is quite puzzling to see a seemly endless row of mostly empty gates along the terminal, with the BA plane docked at the very last one, leaving passengers to take a leasury stroll to the exit (though to be fair it is a very impossing building and there are conveyor belts throughout). That's why I'd be inclined to believe the gate is assigned at BA's request for fuel saving reasons...
AFGMEL From Australia, joined Jul 2007, 734 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (4 years 5 months 4 days 15 hours ago) and read 1515 times:
We flew BD from LHR T1 this year. Only because I wanted to spot aircraft (much to partner's dismay ) did we start walking. I couldn't believe how far it was and we were just about the last gate walking through what looked like a newer built extension. Some elderly pax and a woman with two small children arrived huffing and puffing as we were boarding. They didn't mention to us at checkin that it was a hike.
LAXPAX From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 77 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (4 years 5 months 4 days 15 hours ago) and read 1498 times:
You fancy airline experts can weigh-in with all the facts & information you want, but in my personal experience, the phenomenon described by the topic creator is a simple fact of nature:
No matter what airport I'm in, no matter what my origin or destination may be... My flight always ends up being at the farthest possible gate!
"Remember, no matter where you go... there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
ScottB From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 6358 posts, RR: 34 Reply 8, posted (4 years 5 months 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 1459 times:
Quoting PanAm747 (Reply 1): Connecting to American Eagle at gate one A-Z in the northern terminal (1E?)? You'll be arriving at gate 47 at terminal 2E. Oh, and the TrAAm will be closed for repairs. RUN!!!!!
2E and 3E, actually. The Eagle satellite terminal that was used for a few years north of Terminal A/2E was built in part of the space allocated for Terminal 1E
BlueFlyer From United States of America, joined Jan 2006, 3119 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (4 years 5 months 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 1441 times:
In addition to every other reason mentioned above, the gate a particular airline ends up at is also function of where that particular airline stores its air-side and gate equipment/fixtures. At many of the busiest airports, ramp-level and gate-level storage space is limited, and a particular carrier may not be able to do any better than to store their equipment at the end of a pier. In such cases, it makes sense to assign a gate at the end of the pier, close to the carrier's designated storage area, rather than move all that equipment around to wherever the plane might otherwise go.
Vasu From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2005, 3761 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (4 years 5 months 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 1403 times:
Quoting LAXPAX (Reply 7): No matter what airport I'm in, no matter what my origin or destination may be... My flight always ends up being at the farthest possible gate!
Me too! Can't ever remember getting "gate 1" or something remotely close to the dept lounge!
Dtwclipper From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 11, posted (4 years 5 months 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 1384 times:
Quoting Vasu (Reply 10): Quoting LAXPAX (Reply 7):
No matter what airport I'm in, no matter what my origin or destination may be... My flight always ends up being at the farthest possible gate!
Me too! Can't ever remember getting "gate 1" or something remotely close to the dept lounge!
Brings back memories of gate C-26 at the old NW (Davey) Terminal at DTW. Never failed that I had to get there in a mad dash!
Planesailing From United Kingdom, joined Jul 2005, 802 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (4 years 5 months 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 1384 times:
BA shares terminal space with Iberia at MAD seeing as they code share on flights to LHR and are both in Oneworld.
It may therefore be the case that Iberia take up the majority of the Terminal 4 spaces, probably locating the long haul large capacity aircraft at the closest locations in order to aviod large numbers of people walking distances around the terminal.
The A320 or whatever BA sends down therefore probably just parks in one of the spare slots for the 26 other airlines that use the Terminal alongside Iberia.
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From United Kingdom, joined Dec 2008, 81 posts, 
). I did do a search on the subject but didn't notice anything that answered my question.
From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 4242 posts, 
From Netherlands, joined Sep 2004, 4597 posts, 
From Australia, joined Jul 2007, 734 posts, 
) did we start walking. I couldn't believe how far it was and we were just about the last gate walking through what looked like a newer built extension. Some elderly pax and a woman with two small children arrived huffing and puffing as we were boarding. They didn't mention to us at checkin that it was a hike.
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