Originally Posted by
Five93H
As said, rare to see a 'big' MEL.
Last few I've had were all small thing, cockpit light, NAV light, flap seal.
Aircraft kept in great shape and on site MX are knowledgable and able to fix most minor issues in between turns or overnight. They know planes make money in the skies and it's better to fix now, rather than kick the can down the road.
Yup, this isn't Pinnacle and the "run every MEL til expiration" mentality. Most MEL's are cleared within 48 hours. They won't take a big delay needlessly if it can be MEL'd til that night (or more often to get the plane properly routed til the next night) but they won't just leave a broken APU floating around for 10 days because the MEL says they can. They know that the combination of needless delays and unhappy passengers (and crew) isn't worth it if it can be avoided.