I’m sure the airlines want those throttles set to the most fuel efficient setting that gets the plane there safely and on time. Fuel is expensive.
As the other response noted, arriving early can lead to headaches, but for other reasons - for example, slots at the gates are timed, so arriving before the previous plane departs won’t work well. Of course this doesn’t always apply, sometimes the gate is just sitting empty already.
Also, airlines have padded their schedules for years to give themselves some leeway in case of unexpected delays in taking off, landing, minor issues with the plane, etc. I assume this is a relatively small amount, like 5 or 10 minutes, but I really don’t know. But it does mean the flight will show up early frequently when things are normal.
I’m no aerospace doctor or nothin, but I’d think the pilot would be expected to stay on a very strict schedule. If they arrived at the intended airport minutes ahead of schedule they might have trouble landing when another scheduled flight is trying to land or have to awkwardly circle the runway until there is clearance.
I mean, the pilot can literally set the throttle for more speed? Isn’t that the whole function of it? “Engine go more/less brrr?”
(I am aware of autothrottle and all that, but iirc pilots still have a lot of leeway regarding economy/speed/…)
I’m sure the airlines want those throttles set to the most fuel efficient setting that gets the plane there safely and on time. Fuel is expensive.
As the other response noted, arriving early can lead to headaches, but for other reasons - for example, slots at the gates are timed, so arriving before the previous plane departs won’t work well. Of course this doesn’t always apply, sometimes the gate is just sitting empty already.
Also, airlines have padded their schedules for years to give themselves some leeway in case of unexpected delays in taking off, landing, minor issues with the plane, etc. I assume this is a relatively small amount, like 5 or 10 minutes, but I really don’t know. But it does mean the flight will show up early frequently when things are normal.
I’m no aerospace doctor or nothin, but I’d think the pilot would be expected to stay on a very strict schedule. If they arrived at the intended airport minutes ahead of schedule they might have trouble landing when another scheduled flight is trying to land or have to awkwardly circle the runway until there is clearance.
Approach control takes care of that for airliners. They literally get told vectors to maintain.
IFR pilots follow ATC instructions throughout their flight.