Timbo, I don't disagree with anything you've said:). I'd like to see some of the office campers out on the line more often too. Same with some in the training department. But as you may or may not know, there are these weekly meetings at which the heads of all departments meet to discuss weekly delays. Flt Ops takes the bulk of these. Cargo door open? Flt. Ops. delay. No start cart? Flt. Ops. delay. More ice for the flight attendants? Flt. Ops delay. This happens for two reasons. 1- Up until now, most pilots have no idea that a delay has either occurred or been assigned to flt. ops. 2- Flt. Ops. doesn't get any backlash for the delays. If ACS gets a delay, heads sometimes roll. Flt. Ops, just a shoulder shrug usually. No big deal. You get the idea... My hope is this new program gives the real problems no place to hide.

Yup. They have a couple of propellerheads from Cal Berkley working on it.

Re: "Latency" Bulletin:
As someone else mentioned, Delta is getting big into "data mining."
When compared to our competitors data-set, our structural deficiencies or operational issues start to becomes evident.

As pilots while we might not have the "big picture," we do have a front row seat to the operation and if asked would be able to put our finger on quite a few issues...
Of course most of the time we end up greasing the skids to make the whole operation run without a hitch and on time. There are many little things as cockpit crews we do daily that facilitate a smooth operation. When we stop doing that, the whole operations takes a big hit.

Unfortunately this proactive approach helps mask operational or structural issues in other departments...issues that never get fixed because their negative effects are being continuously mitigated by cockpit crews. It's like a minor squawk you don't put in the book. Three weeks later you get the same jet and it still has the squawk because nobody else has put it in the book...

That's how I read the memo, nothing more, nothing less.

But here's a look at a blip of the "Data" that most likely triggered the memo:
Our taxi times from OUT to OFF compared to our competitors
As you can see, on average, Delta aircraft spend 5-10 minutes more on the ground from OUT to OFF...
And while I don't have the data, I'd imagine the numbers in ATL to look about the same, thus the attempt at "pushing on the 45" to save time.

Obviously when viewed through the data mining lens, these minutes become accretive and suddenly we "recover" several aircraft/day by adding up all the time.
The motivation here is doing more with less. We've shrunk to the point where any further cuts in capacity have big negative affects on CASM and these efforts are a an attempt to gain some wiggle room.

Cheers
George

Very interesting George.

The one thing about JFK (which might be better now) we had a lousy ramp set up. The one thing about ATL, Ramp 2 is horrific at times and not always the controllers fault. Sometimes planes break in push. Sometimes the "get our name in the hat!" screws stuff up. How about the guy who starts both engines and runs the taxi check without moving - seen it on the 88. Sometimes ground doesn't take planes because they have to tell everyone to switch over to tower as if pilots didn't know that was necessary. If they ran metering 24/7, that'd be nice. Then again, sometimes the ramp controllers do just screw it up o r t a l k w a y t o o s l o w.

It's something UsAir definately doesn't have to deal with, Ramp 3 by and large seems to run smoother so AirTran probably does well and AMR/CAL are probably fine too. I wonder what the times for planes out of Ramp 5 and up do against Ramps 1-3?
What happens if they find out they can't do 45 minutes turn on 150-160 seat jets? I wonder if they'll find out they're consistently 5 minutes late so the answer is to make 50 minute turns. So it's really a wash, they won't get more utilization out of that particular airplane.

Of course one idea, we've got this beautiful invention on the 88/90 called the back door. When there is no room for bags we ought to move them towards the back door where they are tagged and easily sent down to the aft cargo door.

hmmmm. I'd make a suggestion but 1 a month is all allow myself. Although my last one for January is making it up the chain! :D

Now more of the "Cmon people, let's go" to the pax by the FAs (heard last week).

Let me be clear though, I'm kind of digging this new emphasis on following the rule. Like has been said before, I was kind of sick of the whole throw the beacon on asap and don't turn it off til the door is open game.

But for at least a little while it's going to cause strife between employees.

Well in my cockpit, if we are not buttoned up and ready to push at D-0, I'm on the ACARS to the dispatcher asking What's the Delay??

Until Flt. Ops leadership starts pushing back, and saying "No, WE WERE READY, it's all the other Depts. that are not." we'll keep getting the fingers pointed at us. Especially if there is no backlash for us, vs. all the other depts.

So...is that going to change?

Here's one for you, my last big delay, I had an airplane with a MCO that had been flying around the world with that MCO for 3 days. When I got in the jet, at 8:30pm, the rt. engine cowls were open and the cockpit had 3 mx guys in it running tests.

I asked what's up, the MX lead said, "That MCO expires tonight, at midnight, we have to fix it before we can let you go, but NOBODY ordered the PART!"

Long story short, the flight was delayed 7 1/2 hours, it departed at 4:30am. We timed out after waiting 4 hours, then left for a motel.

Another delay; we are all buttoned up, ready to call for push, when the Purser comes up front and says, "We have a pax who is on the phone with her Sister, and her daughter, who are outside in the concourse, trying to get on this flight!"

I thought maybe we were full, but the Purser said No, they have seats!

Well we look out the window, all the lights are off in the boarding area. We call Special Assist, tell them to get someone out here pronto to open the door (closed early) and put them on!

A couple minutes go by, S/A calls us back, he says, "Nope, I talked to the gate agent and he said there's nobody there..."

I said, "How would he know, HE'S NOT HERE!" I told him we have a pax on her cell ph. talking to the sister, who says she is standing in the gate area, no agent in sight!

Another two minutes go by...S/A calls us again and says, "Well, go ahead and leave with out them, we'll put them on another flight."

Our flight was ATL-Johannesburg, SA.

There is NO other flight, until tomorrow night. :rolleyes:

I tell the Purser they are not going to open the door, they want us to go without them. In another minute she comes up and says, "Well, this lady is NOT GOING without her daughter and her sister, so she wants off!"

Sooo...we call S/A back, and as calmly as I can say it, I tell him, "OK, now you'll need to send out an agent to open the door, take this lady off, and send out a ground crew, to remover all 3 of their suitcases. That will take at least 45 minutes. Is that what you want to do? OR...would you rather just open the door and put them on?"

Two minutes later, the door was opened, the two of them got on, and we finally left, 15 mintues late.

WHY?

Because the AGENT closed the door 5 minutes early, while the two of them were returning from the bathroom. He then turned out the lights and left the area. He then lied about it to the A/S guy, and said there was nobody left in the gate area.

I'm sure they blamed that one on Flt. Ops. as well.

Back in the day a frequently asked question during the pilot interviews was "Who pays your salary"? The correct answer was (and still is, IMHO) "The passengers".

Maybe a month or two ago I was in DTW on a Friday night flying the last flight to DCA. I saw the gate agent head down the jetway with our final paperwork and maybe 30 seconds later I saw four passengers show up hurriedly to the gate, now with no agent.

It was maybe D-3 and I hustled up the jetway, met the agent and told her I was going to grab the passengers. I think we still pushed on time, but honestly I was more concerned about getting all of our paying passengers to their destination. I told the agent if we were late to blame me.

Perhaps I don't "have the big picture", but those folks got home on Friday night instead of late Saturday morning. They were very thankful when saying good-bye. To me that's customer service, and that's the business we're in.

Here's another one. Every Saturday we have an SXM turn out of JFK that requires us to fly the WATRS routes. They are putting non-HF aircraft on this pairing almost every weekend resulting in an additional 1:30 in flight time, causing any connections back in JFK to miss their flights. Also an extra 10k lbs in fuel burn.

Well duh! The HF 75 is going to LAX! ;)