# Go-Arounds in Commercial Airline flight? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 2, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-arounds-in-commercial-airline-flight/315372 "2005-08-02T22:54:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-arounds-in-commercial-airline-flight/315372/21 "2005-08-04T08:43:16Z")
I stayed in Gibraltar for 10 days. Go arounds would have happened on maybe every second flight. There are very few flights. It was pretty cloudy and rainy for those 10 days, I admit. Once, a plane did _two_ go arounds. Someone there said they only have enough fuel for three attempts, so they were on wood for the final time. Is that right? How many go arounds do you have fuel for? ---
**Author:** ![MAGunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@MAGunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MAGunter)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-arounds-in-commercial-airline-flight/315372/22 "2005-08-04T08:49:02Z")
> [@](#): > > Nah. It’s easy for airliners to do this, assuming sufficient runway\*. When I take my students to AFW (Alliance Airport), it’s not unusual to share the pattern\*\* with a 777 doing touch & goes. Not frequent, but not unusual either. Is that Alliance in Fort Worthless? If so, cheers. Just wanted to give props to a fellow Texan 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-arounds-in-commercial-airline-flight/315372/23 "2005-08-04T14:39:36Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Is that right? How many go arounds do you have fuel for? Ehhhh…it depends. It depends on how far away your alternate (airport) is, how you are compared to the fuel plan (ie above or below predicted fuel), and what is causing the go-arounds. For isolated airports with lousy weather you might put on enough fuel to allow three shots at getting in. Most of the time the fuel plan allows you two hacks at it before you have start heading to your alternate. I’ve also been stuck in holding for so long that we left and went to our alternate without ever attempting to go into our original destination. Common sense says that three attempts is probably enough. If you can’t get in after three tries it’s time to hang it up and go somewhere else to wait out whatever is preventing you from landing at your destination. ---
**Author:** ![Hooleehootoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/eada6e/32.png) [@Hooleehootoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hooleehootoo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-arounds-in-commercial-airline-flight/315372/24 "2005-08-04T21:44:48Z")
There are various estimates of go-arounds/air mile or per time period. Anyone want to give guesstimates per landing by U.S. carriers at U.S. airports? ---
**Author:** ![Jake4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@Jake4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake4)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-arounds-in-commercial-airline-flight/315372/25 "2005-08-05T01:29:08Z")
Happened to me once. We were flying United, and they had the cool “listen to the cockpit radio on Channel 9” thing going on. I was listening on the approach and heard the pilot tell the tower he was going around for another try because a fog bank had rolled in and obscured his visual of the runway. Since they were flying visually and not on instruments we had to try again. I liked being able to tell my gf what was going on before anyone else in the cabin (who wasn’t also listening to Ch 9) knew what was happening. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Yeah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/dbc845/32.png) [@Yeah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeah)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-arounds-in-commercial-airline-flight/315372/26 "2005-08-05T01:36:29Z")
[QUOTE=pullin] Nah. It’s easy for airliners to do this, assuming sufficient runway\*. When I take my students to AFW (Alliance Airport), it’s not unusual to share the pattern\*\* with a 777 doing touch & goes. Not frequent, but not unusual either. I spent a half hour or so in the 1970s watching a 747 do repeated touch-n-goes. I think the airport was Reno (definitely not an airport where you would expect 747 service.) To lessen the effect of reporting bias in this dataset for anyone trying to calculate rates, I’ve never been in a plane that aborted a landing in maybe 500,000 miles of air travel on 5 continents. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-arounds-in-commercial-airline-flight/315372/27 "2005-08-05T07:36:15Z")
I had the pleasant experience of having to do an unexpected go-around today. Some fool taxied out onto the runway as I was in the flare. I was in a light twin though (Shrike Aerocommander), not a commercial airliner so not a data point for the OP, just thought I’d share. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-arounds-in-commercial-airline-flight/315372/28 "2005-08-05T11:24:28Z")
I don’t keep notes on when I perform go-arounds since they’re non-events from our perspective, but my ballpark estimate on the rate is 1 per year out of roughly 400 flights/year. Some airports are more prone to them, and a schedule with lots of transits at those airports might have double that rate. As well, some months the weather just sux and you end up with more holding, diversions, and missed approaches. Other months things just work great every day at work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-arounds-in-commercial-airline-flight/315372.md?page=1)