Originally Posted by
Qwkynuf
I'm not aware of any US airport that allows powerback, and haven't seen it done for decades. It's a noise and exhaust management problem for the terminal building and ground crew, and it has a very high risk of flinging foreign objects from the ramp area against the terminal building - or kicking up a dust storm that will then be sucked into the engines.
NW was doing power-backs at MSP and DTW with their DC-9s up until the merger. Unsure about after as I bailed and went to UA.
Inop APU, yes, most likely reason to do a gate start.