Originally Posted by
drewguy
Not sure this is a pilot thing but …
DCA-EWR flight this afternoon (4413, dep 4p), delayed inbound means outbound delay.
however, the plane for the next DCA-EWR flight (dep 5:15p) has arrived already.
At least in theory this plane could be turned and reduce the delay of the 4pm flight, and the 5:15 flight could use the late inbound plane, and still depart on time.
all are CRJ-550s.
Any idea why they wouldn’t make this swap? Do the
pilots or crew need some amount of “rest” before turning (i
assume the same pilots just turn around)
I have some suppositions but curious about the "general" real answer. In this case though it is worth noting that all of the DCA-EWRs this afternoon are currently showing delays (4414 and later are "due to FAA staffing shortages") so UA or G7 (as the case may be) may have figured staying in the supermarket line they're already in re: aircraft/crew assignments and routings made more sense than shuffling everything to move to the line that looked shorter only to find an octogenarian with a checkbook and no pen was the next in line.