United Reverts to Pre-Merger Policy, Allows Pilots to Taxi Without Final Weight Clearance

United is reverting to pre-merger rules that allow pilots to begin taxiing before final weights are approved.

United Airlines will allow flights to leave the gate before flight deck crews have received final weights. The new standard operating procedure marks a return to a long standing United Airlines policy that was dropped in favor of more restrictive Continental Airlines rules after the two airlines merged.

Crews will still be required to receive a final weight manifest and a final takeoff data message before takeoff, but the airline hopes that relaxing rules will lessen time constraints on operations agents under pressure to provide final numbers before flights are allowed to depart the gate.

“[This] allows our airport operations co-workers a realistic amount of time to input accurate payload values into the load planning system, getting it right the first time as opposed to sending through revisions,” United officials said in a July 31 memo to pilots obtained by Air Transport World.

The move brings United’s policy more in line with other US carriers which mostly allow pilots to begin taxiing before final numbers are calculated. United told pilots the new system should provide for a “safer, more efficient and reliable operation” as well as helping to “reduce gate-availability delays for inbound flights.”

United has already implemented the revised clearance rules for crews operating select aircraft. The airline expects to bring the new policy to pilots flying its large fleet of Boeing 737 planes later this month.

[Photo: United Airlines]