Originally Posted by
Aliquot
In my experience swapping at an outstation isn't unusual.
A common scenario is that the aircraft and/or crew from later scheduled departure is traded with the delayed flight. The delayed incoming aircraft than flys the later departure. Often the result is two flights with minor delays versus one with a major delay or cancelation due to crew timeout.
Which only is possible if you have multiple aircraft and crew at the outstation. AA will rolling delay a flight that has NO aircraft at the outstation and the ONLY aircraft that can be used is 2+ hours away. They do it on flights that don't have equipment swaps or anything. That's the real issue - not that every so often they can make an operational swap.