Originally Posted by
injera
Delayed again by ~50 minutes last night. Though scheduled to arrive only 20 minutes late this morning. Any ideas?
From past experience at another airline with US-GRU flights (on 767's):
The S.A. flights were some of the most difficult to work on the ramp. Not sure if this relates to DL's issues, but might be interesting to you nonetheless.:
U.S.-S.A. flights are usually very difficult to load. They're often weight restricted, and many times cargo has to wait to the last minute to be loaded, depending on how many pax actually show up. Cargo generally has to be loaded before bags (FILO), so those have to wait also. Loading a widebody isn't something that can be done in 5-10 minutes. It's more like 20-35 minutes.
Additionally, the length of those flights is pushing the flight attendant max duty limits. I recall that if our flights took just over an hour or so of delay, the FAs would time out. Then it would be delayed until the next morning and re-crewed. So if the flight went mechanical for any reason, you could pretty much plan on having an overnight delay.