Personally, I just feel that they use that far out arrival runway because they know the regional gates are always congested. Our flight, when its permitted to leave on time.....
When we do leave on time, we usually make it to Chicago early. But that doesn't matter, as we will just sit on a landing pad.
Five significantly delayed/cancelled/mechanicals in five weeks with Eagle at ORD. None were weather related.
Possible causes:
-Impossible to achieve ground time in the schedule at out stations. Typical on my flights is 25 minutes from scheduled arrival to scheduled departure. Literally impossible to achieve with gate checked luggage. Result is all flights late all day.
-These flights are now almost exclusively forced to use the "far out" arrival runway at ORD. Adds a minimum of 15 minutes to arrival time.
-No sense of urgency for on time performance from Eagle. Typically we arrive at the gate and there is no one there to marshal in the plane, gate checked luggage takes longer and longer to arrive. Jet bridge person is nowhere to be found when plane arrives at gate.
I have been on these five flights which arrived more than 45 minutes late into ORD with almost all passengers connecting to other flights. Most of them missed their connections which just results in more work for AA.
I really think Eagle has vastly deteriorated in on time performance over the last few months. It is getting harder and harder to support them.