Originally Posted by
FSUnole03
My question is - isn't the flight crew required to check in like 60 or 90-mins before the flight. Therefore, shouldn't DL have known well before boarding there was no Captain for the flight??
Nope. Thats the optimized scheduling software that marries diverse groups of people with equipment. 99% of the time the crew will be there when plane comes in.
In this case it seems GA was preoccupied or didn't pay attention to their notification (and stop boarding). System probably flagged this for them about 30 mins before boarding started but they thought someone will turn up in next hr or so before they need to push back from ramp.
Better scheduling software means finer margins (to minimize un-productive time for crew waiting in crew lounge or around the gate)