• Skunk
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    1 year ago

    I think the problem is about slot management and the way they work.

    In ATC, at least in Europe but FAA is probably more or less the same, your flight can get delayed for whatever reason (meteo, atc capacity, airport etc…).

    In case of a delay you get a SAM, slot allocation message with a new EOBT (estimated off block time). You can shorten this waiting time by various means, you will get an SRM (slot revision) and in order to be certain that you won’t miss this slot (or get a new worst one) you have to send a ready message.

    Ready means door closed, ready for pushback. And that’s the problem here, that’s how you get stuck in an airplane on the ground, cause you’re « ready ».

    That sucks, but a crew will generally not board a plane if they have a huge non negociable slot. But if they think the slot could improve so they can stick to their schedule, you’ll probably end up waiting in a shitty overcrowded cabin.

    And sometimes it’s the airport doing shit like pre boarding a plane so they can pack passengers for another flight at the gate.

    Wow, the more I write about how the industry work, the more I hate it. Time to change career.