Originally Posted by
jsloan
Well... let's see... if the ramp is closed because it's unsafe for people to work outside, and you brought planes up to those empty gates.... you'd need to have ramp personnel... oh wait.
Managers to... control the weather?
The FAA's long tarmac delay plan came about after long delays due to a winter storm across the upper midwest, as I recall; NW, in particular, had people on the tarmac for 10+ hours in Detroit. So the FAA "solved" the problem by regulating it away. The problem is, nobody stopped to ask what they were supposed to do if conditions made it impossible to do anything but leave people sitting on the plane.
to an extent yes. But if we're talking 6 hours, that's a failure on UA. Hard to imagine the ramp was closed for 6 hours. What's sad is that there truly is no alternative that UA has come up with when irrupts happens. It's just let the customer suffer for hours on a plane. Trying to run a full schedule when weather is known coming in is UA's fault (or any airline for that matter) and contingency plans need to be better. Bring pax in, tow it off and park it and let another come in.