This scares me -- the DC-9s already have short turn-around times. Last week, a DC-9 was 50 minutes late inbound to LAN, and we left 45 minutes late, so virtually no time was made up. Thus, once one flight is late during the day, the tight turn-around times mean that all later flights used by that aircraft will also be delayed (a domino effect). I missed my connection and had to wait in DTW for an extra 2.5 hours until the next flight.

Doesn't increased aircraft utilization lead to more delayed flights and thus more missed connecting flights? It's could especially be a problem with high load factors, when a later flight might already be full.