Nightman

Anyone listen to the conference call? Anything good to report?

AlaskaBound

Absolutely nothing. A-14 is now the focus. We suck at A-14. So I'm sure they'll come up with some lame fix that won't work.

AlaskaBound

Talking about new hire numbers? It won't be 40..maybe closer to 30.

Poser765

So WHY do we suck at A-14? System wide or LAX? American or Delta?

Nightman

I'd imagine LA has a whole lot to do with it. Can't tell you how many times I've landed there on time or early and blown A-14 sitting waiting for the gate. Hopefully the move to the north side will help. I'd like to see our A-14 numbers at every station excluding LAX. It's probably on par with everyone else.

AirBat

Delta I'm sure... I mean... A14 is a much tougher number to tackle. Weather and flow that aren't blocked in to the leg? You're done. The controllable aspect of A14 goes back to D0/Star D0 (and increasing block times on legs that often miss A14, some flights are not blocked long enough like SEA-SNA.) Once we push off the gate on time, most of elements after that are out of our control... how long it takes to push, taxi, and takeoff.... and flight time is gonna be what the flight time is gonna be. The only "fix" for A14 is controlling D0 (maybe let us leave 10 prior going to Seattle...) and fixing underblocked flights. If you say it's gonna take 2 hrs, and every time we do it in 2:20, the A14 isn't the problem.

Poser765

This is how I feel as well. Not only have I been late waiting for a gate, but more than once we've landed with time to spare only to see A14 slip away just getting from the north complex over to the box. Have something like that happen at 0900 and it snowballs into the rest of the day.

I would love to see the delay reports and see how much of our performance is on us. I get it, we have a lot of new captains here, but surely that can't account for most or even a lot of it. I'm a new captain, and on reserve I've flown with a lot of new FOs. Rarely are we late and when we are it's almost always the fault of the station or the unique issues dealing with LAX.

I would very much also like to see Mainline's performance in LA and how it compares to ours. I just really don't know what else we can about our D0/A14 when so much of it is outside our control.

conquestdz

I doubt that shaving our fuel helped A14. I find myself pulling back to .76 or less frequently when some totally unforeseeable circumstance like departing north in Seattle chews through the entire 700 lbs of contingency fuel before we ever get pointed in the right direction.

Poser765

I don't know...1 or 2 tenths of a mach doesn't make that much difference time wise, does it? I can't blame them for changing the fuel loads...we were landing with a LOT of extra gas routinely.

conquestdz

If you are a little late those extra two minutes might make all the difference. We all know how 30 seconds can cost 15 minutes if it puts you at the back of the pack.