Sure we do, often, as a matter of fact. It seems to depend on the situation. Example: 20 inbound connecting on the last flight out to that destination for the day. This is very common on certain routes. An example of this: BUF-DTW These flights are almost always half full of Japanese tourist passengers. They connect to NRT in DTW. Winter=A Mess=30 to 40 minutes delayed inbound. Half of a DC-9 is about 65 people, so we wait. I have been working quite a few Narita flights when this occured.

However, 5 hours is stretching it a bit, I doubt that was the scenario here.