Originally Posted by
Weekend Away
I think it depends on how long the delay is. I flew ATL-SEA this week and we had to de-ice and there was a log jam for it. We took off late but landed early. DL pads their schedules a lot, that's how they end up getting the best on time performance trophy every year.
It’s extremely expensive to pad the schedules since the company has to pay pilots and flight attendants based on the published schedule. If you pad your flights 10% more than competitors your employee costs will be much higher. The internal statistic Delta focuses on is pushback time. They don’t pad their schedules more or less than most other airlines.