[QUOTE=fastair;8021366]Every hub has "banks". Banks are when a round of flights from a direction (say the west) all land and about 45 min later (the turn time on these aircraft) the connecting flights going out to the east (in IAD's case, in is a n/s bank, except for the "megabank" which is to Europe.)

This system allows the maximum number of inbound flights to connect with the maximum number of connecting flights with enough time for transfers, but not hours to make the passengers wait.



And, I will add that this is exactly why the GA will attempt to blame delays on "ATC". Never mind the airlines schedule 100 arrivals in an hour when the maximum arrival rate due to airport capacity is 85/hour. Domestic is impacted more of course. The main factor in capacity: Concrete!!