A go-around is when a pilot abandons a landing attempt, adds power, climbs back to a safe altitude, and circles around to try the approach again. It happens roughly one to four times per every 1,000 approaches at major airports, and it is one of the most routine maneuvers in aviation. The FAA classifies it not as an emergency procedure but as a normal maneuver that may sometimes be used in emergency situations.
Why Pilots Perform Go-Arounds
The short answer: whenever landing conditions aren’t satisfactory. That covers a wide range of scenarios. The most common trigger is an unstable approach, meaning the aircraft isn’t in the right configuration, speed, descent rate, or flight path as it gets close to the runway. Airlines set specific criteria for what “stable” looks like. Generally, the aircraft should be on the correct path, at the right speed, descending no faster than 1,000 feet per minute, and requiring only small corrections in pitch or heading. These parameters need to be met by 1,000 feet above the airport in poor visibility conditions, or by 500 feet in clear weather. If the crew isn’t meeting those criteria, a go-around is mandatory under most airline policies.
Other common reasons include another aircraft or vehicle still on the runway, a sudden shift in wind (especially crosswinds or wind shear near the ground), visibility dropping below acceptable limits, or air traffic control needing to maintain spacing between arriving planes. Sometimes the reason is as simple as the pilot not feeling right about the approach. Training emphasizes that at any point during the approach or landing, right into the final moments before touchdown, if something feels off, the correct decision is to go around.
What Happens in the Cockpit
When the decision is made, the pilot advances the throttles to full or near-full power. The aircraft’s nose pitches up to begin climbing. The landing gear retracts, and the wing flaps are gradually brought in to transition the aircraft from its slow landing configuration back to a climbing configuration. These steps happen in a specific, practiced sequence because getting them wrong at low altitude and low speed could be dangerous. Pilots train for go-arounds repeatedly in simulators, and it’s one of the first maneuvers student pilots learn.
If the flight was on an instrument approach (landing in clouds or low visibility), the crew follows a published missed approach procedure. This is a predefined route with specific headings and altitudes that guides the aircraft safely away from terrain and other traffic. The pilot then contacts air traffic control to state their intentions: another approach attempt, holding in the air to wait for conditions to improve, or diverting to a different airport entirely.
Go-Around vs. Missed Approach
You’ll hear both terms, and they overlap but aren’t identical. A go-around is the physical act of aborting a landing and climbing away. A missed approach is the published procedure that tells the crew where to fly after they’ve climbed out. In practice, a go-around is almost always followed by flying the missed approach procedure. But they describe different things: one is the maneuver, the other is the route. Notably, “go around” is the standard instruction air traffic controllers use in all circumstances. There is no ATC command for “make missed approach.” The instruction is always “go around.”
What Passengers Feel
If you’re sitting in the cabin, the first thing you’ll notice is the engines suddenly getting much louder. The aircraft’s nose pitches upward noticeably, and you may feel pressed back into your seat as the plane accelerates and climbs. This combination of sudden noise, forward acceleration, and pitch change can be startling, especially if you were watching the ground get closer and expecting to land any moment. The sensation of being pushed back in your seat is caused by the rapid acceleration, which your inner ear interprets as tilting backward. It’s the same feeling you get during takeoff, just less expected.
You may also hear mechanical sounds as the landing gear folds back into the aircraft and the flaps adjust. The whole sequence from “we’re about to land” to “we’re climbing again” takes only a few seconds. The captain will typically make an announcement explaining what happened, though sometimes not until the crew has finished the immediate workload of flying the aircraft back to a safe altitude.
How It Affects Your Flight
A single go-around typically adds 10 to 20 minutes to your arrival time, depending on how quickly the crew can set up for another approach and how busy the airspace is. The fuel cost is more significant than most passengers realize. A go-around increases fuel consumption during the landing and takeoff portion of the flight by 16% to 60%, according to an analysis published in the journal Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health. For most flights, this doesn’t threaten the fuel reserves because aircraft carry extra fuel specifically to account for scenarios like go-arounds, holding patterns, and diversions to alternate airports. But if a flight has already been holding for a while due to weather, a go-around can push the crew to divert to another airport for refueling.
How Common They Are
Across the aviation industry, go-arounds happen at a rate of about one to three per 1,000 approaches. At the 30 busiest airports in the United States, the rate was slightly higher: 3.9 per 1,000 arrivals during the federal fiscal year ending September 2023, according to NASA’s analysis of flight data. That means on any given day at a busy airport handling hundreds of arrivals, a handful of go-arounds are completely normal.
Airlines actively encourage pilots to perform go-arounds whenever conditions warrant. The industry recognized decades ago that the greater danger lies in pilots pressing on with a bad approach rather than going around. Modern airline safety culture treats go-arounds as a sign of good judgment, not a failure to land. The real risk in aviation isn’t the go-around itself. It’s the decision not to go around when conditions call for one.