Originally Posted by
Gold Digger
When we boarded, we were told that ATC clearance was delayed and that in the captain’s view, rather than leaving us to mill around in the terminal building, clearance to take off could be expedited if we completed boarding, pulled away from the gate and sat on some other part of the apron.
This is indeed standard practice, it would be exactly what I would expect to happen in this scenario. Namely there are both CTOT and MDI restrictions which means things are not taking off at their advertised times today. Only 34% of BA departures are leaving within 15 minutes of schedule. Currently your CTOT is 17:23 hrs, so probably another 20 minutes hanging around. The captain sent a message saying s/he was ready at 15:32 hrs.