Originally Posted by BenjaminNYC
Really? It seems that only AE has this chronic lateness problem ex-BOS.
Similar issues out of and into RDU. And I don't mean the daily it's-backed-up-in-NYC thing. Little glitches departing the gate and arriving at the gate seem like overday occurences, and consistently seem to be Eagle issues, not airport issues.
I'm starting to wonder how much profit this stuff is siphoning out of Eagle, in the form of fuel wasted while aircraft sit idling. (Though, in not all cases is an engine fired up yet.)
Out: Oops, we forgot some paperwork. Oops, we forgot that a scheduled maintenance inspection was required at this time. Oops, we are waiting for ground crew to find a tug so we can push back. Oops, we will be pushing back shortly, just waiting for the last bags to load.
In: Oops, we have to sit here because the gates are all occupied by darkened aircraft that are overnighting here. Oops, we have to hold here because the ground crew has not arrived.
My personal favorite:
Plane loaded, pushes back, stops abruptly.
Oops, we were supposed to get our tires changed today. We can do that right here so everyone sit tight.
Oops, this is going to take longer than we thought, so we're going to let you go back into the terminal.
Plane returns to jetbridge, but seatbelt light stays on.
Oops, turns out they did change the tires, but put the wrong ones on. Everybody sit tight while we see if that's OK.
Oops, they did put the right tires on, but somebody filled out the paperwork wrong. Won't take but a few minutes to sort that out.