Originally Posted by clarence5ybr
I remember some years back it came out in the MSP press that NW had a policy that planes would be pushed back from the gate on time, even if ATC had their takeoff delayed and they knew they'd have to sit on the runway. This let them claim an 'on-time departure', even if the plane took off much later than scheduled.
I remember many years back, I flew from ORD and left the gate at the scheduled time. Because of severe storms on our path, all traffic was held - and we sat on the taxiway
AT ORD for 3 hours! But, we had an "on-time departure" - even though we were still at ORD 3 hours later. (At least we saw 1 1/2 movies and had dinner {remember those in Y?
} before takeoff!)