Originally Posted by
dblevitan
Meanwhile, by the time the plane from SFO arrived, there were at least a few planes that looked identical to the one that arrived from SFO parked in the gates surrounding ours, and no one from CO even thought of using those planes and saving everyone an hour.
There are many other logistical issues to consider in addition to what the other poster said...crew scheduling issues being chief among them. Those other planes were probably scheduled for other flights as well. If taking one of them would delay that flight, where is the benefit? 'Getting creative' with on-time management does work, but it is more likely to create additional logistical problems. And remember that CO flies several different configurations of 737 that may look identical from the outside to the novice eye when they really aren't the same plane. Better to delay your's one hour instead of flying on time with 20 fewer passengers left in CLE.
