I see alot of CO crews (and repeats of the same ones) that tell me they want to leave early. I always reply that after the checking cutoff, if every checked in passengers are on, and if all of the other depts are done (all bags accounted for, aircraft fully catered...) I've got no problem locking it up early. Usually there is an inbound connecting flight with people on it (I work at a hub) that prevents 100% of people and bags to be on significantly early, so what's the pointing in boarding the remaining passengers early to sit on the aircraft for 30 min? Extremely early dptrs lead to extremely early arrivals. Most airports don't have an unlimited supply of gates so penalty box waits happen. People in the box, even when early often perceive they are late and get ticked off. I'm all for a few early if it doesn't leave people or bags behind, but there's a limit becore extremely early departures creates more problems than it solves.