Originally Posted by
DYKWIA
No - they should announce the delay before boarding. That gives the "customer" the chance to make their own judgement of whether or not they want to board.
On the U2 flight I mentioned, we initially pushed back and parked. But after a few hours, we went back to the gate to allow some people off.
I'm sympathetic to this viewpoint, but I suspect in reality almost everyone would choose to board given the other option is to be left behind and abandon the trip - most people would not think BA should simply reaccommodate you a day later, even assuming there's space.
So you're looking at passengers on a day trip that is rendered in vain as a result of landing a couple of hours late.
Not specifically at DUB, but there may be very good reasons to get aircraft off stand so other services can get in - otherwise arriving passengers are also stuck. On Thursday I arrived at T5 early on a flight from CGN, but then spent over 30 minutes on the tarmac waiting for a gate because the aircraft on our assigned one had a technical problem. Now extend that to 3 hours and see how you feel about someone else's plane unnecessarily preventing you arriving when you have a connection you'll then miss.
From an operational viewpoint, you want stands free so if you can get an aircraft off and additionally gain the possibility of an earlier departure slot, you do it.