I'm with TA and FlightCancelled.

The only reason there is a delay at all is because of the weather. That is the proximate cause. ATC just administers it in an attempt to get as much capacity out of the constrained system as possible.

Even if ATC allowed every scheduled flight to depart, those flights would not be landing on time and many would not be landing at their intended destinations.

 

I've seen flights cancelled by United with "ATC" being given as the reason even on days with fine weather and not going to a notoriously volatile airport weather-wise like SFO.

I honestly think it might just be easier for staff to blame ATC (i.e. a 3rd party) than to cite UA "operational reasons".

 

Unsuitable by ATC means that either the radio or transponder are not functioning to a level needed to operate in the system. In this case it is an airline issue as it is their equipment that does not work.

 

No, it is not an odd statement. The delay is caused by the weather. The delay is then managed and handled by ATC in terms of flow and CTOT-times in order to secure a safe and effective flow of air traffic taking into account the prevailing and forecasted relevant conditions (may it be weather, closed runways/approaches, restricted airspace and so on).

 

I was going to take a position against weather causing the delay, but given that my dictionary's 1.a. definition of cause is "Something that produces an effect, result, or consequence (emphasis mine), the usage of "cause" does seem to be correct.

Sorry about that, Weather. I already had it in for you for causing the flooding in my basement for the first time ever (house was built in the 50's, so has seen many Bay Area drought/deluge cycles).

 

I think this is a new thing with United. Agent explained to me a few weeks ago that my flight had been cancelled by air traffic control. I tried explaining that ATC probably asked them to reduce the number of inbound flights to SFO but United decided what to cancel.

It was the only flight that day to my destination, and agent said no, they [United] would never cancel it, but ATC told them they had to cancel my specific flight. I gave up at that point.

 

No different than "cause" and "manner" of death. You may be shot by someone and die from pneumonia 6 weeks later. It is completely irrelevant.

I suspect that OP simply misheard.

The underlying cause of the delay is weather. The manner in which the delay ocurred is ATC (or ultimately UA which chose the particular flight).

The Greek Chorus who assert that carriers are lying when they post ATC as a reason for a cancellation or delay simply need to move on. Given 20 characters on a display or 20 seconds on a PA announcement, what passengers need to hear is that their flight is not going out as expected and some basic reason. Some of those people may have limited English skills, poor hearing, limited intelligence, be multitasking or not care much.

My vote is with the last category. The folks who just want to know that their flight will be an hour late and could care less why and don't need to prove to some GA that they are smarter.

 

An agent doesn't have any detailed information about how a particular flight delay or cancellation was made. All they have is the information posted in the flight's FLIFO. i.e. Weather, ATC, etc.

Many airports have reduced capacity due to inclement weather. When this happens, ATC will reduce the number of flights that they will accept. The airlines are informed of the reduction and can make the decisions about which flights are delayed or cancelled so as to minimize the overall impact on the system. The airlines will consider re-route options, international connections, crew duty time, and many other factors in deciding how to absorb the reductions that are ultimately being caused by the weather.

 

More importantly, ATC and WX are both no-fault delay codes so it really doesn't have any material impact..