3 out of my last 5 flights were "earlybirds" --flights that left before the actual departure time. And my 3 recent earlybird experiences weren't just 2-5 minutes early --they were 15+ minutes early!

On a recent EWR-BOS flight, we boarded 40 minutes before departure. (I remember a time when some gate agents didn't even show up at the gate this early.) In any event, about 30 minutes before departure, the gate agent raced into the galley and scolded the flight attendants: "you have to hurry up and make sure these passengers board faster than they are!" The flight attendant responded, "but the flight is nearly empty and we have 30 minutes before pushback!". The gate agent responded with something along the lines, "but we need to be first and most on-time, there is no second or third in the race for on-times." The flight attendant gave a "whatever" expression...and we did end up pushing back about 25 minutes before departure time.

So while I know some get penalized for delayed flights, what incentive exists for Continental and/or their employees to depart the gate so quickly?

(And talk about hurry-up-and-wait ...while you push-back early, you're stuck in ground traffic and take-off/wheels-up time ends up being the same as if you left the gate at departure time.)

CO rewards it's employees if the company finishes #1 in DOT on-time statistics. They used to be rewarded for #1, #2 and #3 finishes, but Larry and the "Bean Counters" took away the reward for finishing #2 or #3.

So, you now have the ground staff being trying to get a plane out on-time or early at any cost.

As for ground traffic, it does not matter. The DOT statistics are based upon Push Back times.

My SFO-IAH flight on a 777 yesterday had the captain push back, taxi to the runway and take off without stopping.

FA's were literally flying through BF collecting glasses before they flew off the chairs. Wheels-up at three minutes prior to scheduled take-off - wow.

Uh...no.

DOT stats are based on on-time (w/in 15 minutes) arrival, not departure.

Month-to date earlybird performance is 64.7% with an October goal of 65.4%.

Not sure what it's used for, but Continental certainly tracks it.

I was on a flight out of TUS last month that pushed back 15 minutes before schedule.

Before we got to the runway we were informed that a passenger who had checked luggage had not boarded the plane, so it was back to the gate. They had to either unload the offending passenger's luggage, or permit the passenger to board the plane.

Rather then take the time to search out the unaccompanied luggage, the passenger was permitted to board the plane.

Yes sir, being on time was important, and now it's more important then ever, customers be d****d.

"I would like to pay full fare for the flight leaving in 40 minutes."

"Sorry, that flight is leaving in 15 minutes, would you like to wait 4 hours?"

I'm getting a little tired of this. We were walking to the gate for our EWR-BWI flight last night about 20 minutes to departure when we heard final boarding and our names announced over the PA in the terminal. When we arrived at the gate, we were told that we needed to 'get with the program', at which point I informed him that we still had 20 minutes and that the flight was not going to depart late because of us. We ended up leaving 7 minutes early and arriving 25 minutes early.

Incidentally, the last person to board was a deadheading pilot who had been sitting out in the gate area the whole time.

Just curious where you were able to dig up this statistic? Do all airlines track this?

I wonder what the payoff to the airlines is for sending the flight off early. Who needs to approve it- the ATCs? The airline ops people?