That should have been obvious before they took the less efficient PMCO policy. Then it took them what, 3-4 more years to figure it out?

There is a lot of stuff that was done without much consideration for operational impact. I remember when they decide on wing walkers, they acknowledged lengthier ground handling times despite no safety benefit.

"Among those protocols was the wing walker question: Continental had required two baggage handlers to walk beneath an airplane’s wings to help guide it into the gate upon arrival. Legacy United went without wing walkers, preferring to have the handlers already at the wheels of baggage tractors. As part of the single operating certificate process, a team of airport operations people had to resolve the discrepancy. Looking into it, they found that wing walkers don’t actually make planes less likely to run into things and that having workers poised to unload bags shaved 90 seconds off the process. And yet the new United went with wing walkers—it heightened the perception of safety, the airport operations team decided, and that was enough."

Who knows what other inefficiencies were brought over that need to be looked at again.