<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by bfunkjeep:
Some smart young congressman who wants to get re-elected should put some laws on the book to prevent garbage like this... All the airlines care about are their bogus performance records. </font>
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by deelmakur:
The sad thing is that because it went into the books as an ontime departure, that delusional bunch at Ft. Fumble in Crystal City will go right on believing their end of month press releases on satisfactory performance. </font>
I've never seen on-time departure as a performance metric - DOT always publishes on-time arrival, complaints, and mishandled baggage. Every press release I could find from US refers to on-time arrivals. I'm assuming a flight that sits at the departure gate is going to be 45 minutes late and ding them on the performance numbers that count.
I know that FA's (pilot too?) get paid for hours worked, which start with closing the door, so you may look to pin the blame elsewhere.