How does "flow control" work when planes dispatch from the same city into the same destination, and they're scheduled departure times are two hours apart?

Once the hold lifts, shouldn't the plane held for three hours at the gate have priority over the one scheduled two hours later?

DL 2094 actually pushed back a bit early (LAX-ATL) today, while DL 2092 - already into a three-hour hold - was still there. And would be for hours more.

Why would dispatchers leap frog like that? A redcoat called the tower and was tersely informed, "It happens, sometimes."

There were NO apparent crew rest or mechanical issues, just somebody deciding to get creative as 194 pax lost the dispatcher lottery. I hate to think how their frustration might have been manifested had those flights left from adjoining gates.

I was later told 2092's pilot couldn't get the first slot because the company needed 2094 equipment first.

That makes it NOT a flow control issue.

Does DL have to put people up in ATL who missed their connection is such a situation?

(emphasis mine)

If the original hold was due to ATC/Wx, DL, like other airlines, will use that to weasel out of any compensation efforts, regardless of their changes in priority of scheduling.

Due to WEATHER / TSTMS, there is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving The William B Hartsfield International Airport, Atlanta, GA (ATL). This is causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 3 hours and 58 minutes. To see if you may be affected, select your departure airport and check "Delays by Destination".

Thunderstorms and airplanes don't play well together......

I don't think the OP was arguing the fact that there was a legitimate reason for the hold. OP was asking if the fact that DL Scheduling decided to change the order of precedence of the flights in requesting their Clear Hold times would have an impact on compensation required to flyers on the further disadvantaged/delayed flight (delayed beyond the expected hold time due to DL Scheduling wanting the other aircraft to get cleared first).

No, my post was a response to your "weasel" comment.

Ah - jump to defend without reading the whole context...gotta love it.

DL will "weasel" out, even though THEY changed the schedule order to meet their business needs and further delayed pax already delayed by ATC/Wx. They will take no responsibility for their behavior and will blame it on the original reason (even if it no longer applies).

Flow Control is dictated by ATC in Washington, DC. It tells the airlines what the flow rate is, for how long and if any ground stops will affect the airport--ATC does not tell companies which flights to delay, in what order, what flights to cancel, what flights to divert--that is all Operations Control Center's job.

In the above situation, the case with the OP has many possible answers:

1. No available crew/missing crew (because they timed out, they are on another plane inbound to ATL, etc.)

2. Landing curfews at destination

3. Crew positioning for the next day (rest legalities).

4. Other operational issues that are generally internal.

Compensation will not be given in this situation because Flow Control program is dictated to DL and DL has no control over arrival and departure rates at the affected city.

You may want to pull up the flight status of these two flights on delta.com. Note two different types of birds. One was evidently needed and the other was not. You may also want to consider the fact that even if the first flight was allowed to take off first, there are not going to be many departing flight tonight at 11:48 PM when the second one lands. The folks on the first flight were going to be spending the night in ATL any way due to WEATHER.

To make an uninformed comment such as the one you made is just bashing the airline with no basis in fact.

I guess I should blame Ford for the fact I got caught in a snow storm and it took me 4 hours longer to get to my destination...... Weather happens and as I stated earlier, thunderstorms and planes do not play well together. Better to spend the night in ATL than in a field some where in Alabama.

My comment would still apply if these were the first flights of the day to arrive in ATL...regardless of the fracking thunderstorm. I am not arguing about whether anyone wants to fly in a fracking thunderstorm. DL will sequence however they please and damn the passengers to any other mechanisms, basing it all on the original ATC/Wx reason for denying any/all compensation claims, even if they add many hours to the flight beyond the SPECIFIC delay caused by flow control.

I have been on a morning flight out of BWI where the original delay was due to ATC/Wx at ATL. Once the hold was cleared and we were allowed to board, the pilot found a dead fire extinguisher in the starboard engine. The flight was eventually canceled (after DL took three hours to determine that no other airline at BWI had the spare parts in inventory to assist), causing many of us to miss the additional, and in some cases final, connections to our original destinations (in my case, resulting in a total of 8 hours of lost time). The compensation for our delays - absolutely nothing; DL BWI stated that the original delay for the flight was ATC/Wx,despite the later admission of a mechanical cancellation, so they have no responsibility other than booking us on the next available flight.

The comment is hardly uninformed, unless personal experience fails to count when informing oneself of an opinion. It may not be entirely correct in this SPECIFIC instance, but perfectly valid in other instances of similar type (I don't think the OP's posts limited answers to just these two specific flights).

Wirelessly posted (ATT Tilt: 8900a/1.2 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.6))

i'll say this, atl is HELL right now! i've seen it bad before but never THIS bad.

Getting the later flight out first allows a few things:
- Delta keeps its on-time performance indicator higher;
- Less misconnecting passengers. The first flight is already screwed and everyone has misconnected. The second flight might be on-time or only slightly late and most people can make their connections;
- The equipment from the first flight is now not going to make the next flight it's scheduled for so that ATL-xxx flight is either delayed, cancelled or an equipment swap happens. The equipment for the second flight has a better chance of continuing to the next destination with little or not interruption (assuming the weather improves in ATL, of course).

There are many valid reasons to let the less-delayed flight leave first. Sure, it stinks to be scheduled on the earlier one and watch a flight that was scheduled to leave after you actually leave before you but from an operational perspective it makes perfect sense.

-RM

Yes. But when there are 190 pax on the more-delayed flight and only about 75 on the less-delayed run, the rationale is not so obvious.

That was the case Sunday.

DL2094 presented far fewer transfers to re-book. It pushed back 3 minutes early.

DL had its hands full, clearly. But if I had to sleep in a chair at Hartsfield overnight because nobody told me I could simply walk down to another LAX gate, I'd be asking questions.

Shouldn't Delta tell SOME of the 190 pax waiting three hours that, four gates away, is another ATL flight leaving right on time with empty seats?

Or would that overwhelm their manpower and create a stampede?

A lot of people would have gotten to where they were going.

I'm on ferry flight from CLT to ATL this morning on a 767. We don't get those here. It appears that 3 international birds (2 767's and a 757 from Rome & Barcelona and not sure were else) and all of the passengers had the chance to spend the night in CLT. Of course the line for check in this morning was half of the terminal. Not a fun night and day for the agents here......