Originally Posted by
BlueSkies
There was a lot of communication about this a few years ago, but basically they want us to be late if we are actually late. The only way they know there's a problem with ramp congestion, push crew availability, etc. is if we leave late, hence don't drop the brake until you have push clearance. I think it's solid policy and something that shows they actually care about running a good operation over the longterm vs. getting the short term ontime 'win' but masking the real problem.
How does five minutes of D delay for ramp congestion/push clearance highlight a “real problem” when everyone from gate agents to below wing bust their butts to be ready at D0? If they really wanted to identify problems, they’d simply want a latency code when dwell time is high. The way to ruin a good operation is to **** in one group’s cheerios because some unrelated factor screwed up their performance metric.