Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
Airline schedules tend to have a lot of extra time built in for such situations. It's pretty common for a flight to depart "late" but nevertheless arrive on time.
Yes, you are right they can take a slight delay and still arrive on time. But twenty minutes late boarding, probably another ten minutes pushback and taxi time, twenty minutes sitting at the end of the runway, and then another 15 minutes taxi time upon arrival in ATL. At that point if you have a tight connection you might arrive in time to wave goodbye to your connecting flight.