Originally Posted by
KenHamer
So I guess that explains why AC never posted a delay for AC34 even when AC33 departed so late it was physically impossible for it to arrive in SYD any earlier than 3 hours after 34's scheduled departure time - they expected to find a spare plane hanging out in Australia.
If AC actually did any of those things in your list you might have a case. But it's pretty clear to most of us that AC doesn't do any of those things and the real reason for the delayed posting of delays is just poor practice.
More times than I can remember I saw "on time" posted 10 or 20 or even more minutes after scheduled departure. I've been told a flight will depart on time 1 minute prior to scheduled departure when there's no plane at the gate. I've been told they can park, deboard, clean, cater, and board a fully loaded A330 (both in and out bound) in less than 20 minutes.
So no, AC is not being proactive. They just don't have their act together when it comes to delays.
I usually subscribe to Hanlon's Razor (Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity) but in this case they have an incentive to delay posting delays -- it impacts their system on-time performance stats. Perhaps this will be addressed by regulation in the upcoming Air Traveller Rights Regime that the Canadian Transportation Agency will be developing. Since that is expected to mandate compensation in the case of delays, there could also be rules around how delays are declared and tracked.