Originally Posted by
Often1
This is done with the full participation of the flight crew. Ops now has much more data available to it and is able to project potential enroute delays and, when possible, eliminate them.
By way of example, a weather front moving in, may motivate Ops to move up the departure, if possible, to avoid subjecting the flight to an enroute delay. Alternatively, if there have been other delays into the arrival airport, it may be possible to get ahead of the "crowd" and have a more direct approach. That saves both time and fuel.
I doubt that freight would have delayed things because that is known well in advance. But, passenger hold luggage might as there may have been tight connections and those bags can't easily be left behind if on time as originally scheduled.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Pure and utter horse manure. Ops do it unilaterally, someone has their eyes on a bonus trigger and they forget to involve us, the crew. Our "full participation" is us noticing its been done and changing it back as we safety critical stuff to do that no one will thank us for omitting and/or rushing. I have filed several ASRs on this matter as Ops do it unilaterally, even repeatedly bringing it forward after I have returned it to schedule. I do not wish to be early in my grave just to please someone who is only focussed on their on time departure bonus.