"O/D"?

Speaking of bad operations at Delta. Do you ever notice how badly they "organize" the baggage claim? 2 or 3 claims will have 8 or 10 flights piled on them but then the others will have 1 or 2. Totally stupid.

Origin and Destination. Meaning very few people are actually just flying BTR-MEM compared to BTR-ATL. Connecting trips historically don't make airlines a significant amount.

A few months ago, I was sitting next to a deadheading Airtran pilot when the obligatory ATL arrival announcement -- "someone is still at our gate" was made. The Airtran pilot then said when that happens to him, he just announces that "Delta is all backed up again and they're blocking out gate, so it'll be a few minutes".

I will do LGA-MEM-LAX if I am trying to boost miles and/or segments as MEM has the lowest fees of Delta hubs (it does add up) and I have also found it to be the easiest hub out of NYC to score an upgrade on because there is not as much of a demand for premium traffic to/from international destinations

It becomes more frustrating when you are late inbound, wait interminably for your gate to open, and are within sight of your connecting flight as it is backed away from the gate.

I did 30 mins twice this week in ATL... Not only are you missing your flight when this happens, but 30 minutes of no gin and tonics or wee wee breaks are just plain cruel and unusual punishments....

10 mins I can kind of understand... but 30 mins is a systemic failure. And the WX was not real bad either time...

Exactly that is what I thought/ hoped might happen, but guess not, add a fourth and or fifth bank to MEM and pull some of the domestic flights out of ATL. MEM is cheaper to run and more efficient. But what do I know.

"Systemic failure," exactly.

One Delta employee told me (he had been to a family funeral, sitting next to me while waiting 30+ minutes for a gate) that on Mondays, operations schedules gate assignments so that, if everything functions flawlessly, by 2 P.M. they will be 36 gates behind.

Everything in the airline industry appears to be over-subscribed. Too may PAX per plane, too many planes per take-off/landing slots, too many planes per gates, too many PAX per Skyclub, too many users per Gogo tower, too many FC PAX per scotch loaded by catering, etc...

For example, any given runway has a finite capacity of planes per hour but collectively the system is allowed to book capacity plus 20 or more.

It ain't just DL...

First of all, that guy must not have worked in a job related to gate/ramp operations because he never would have waited that long.

Second of all, would you care to elaborate on what that statement even means? To suggest that it is routinely planned to have 36 flights delayed, or 36 in-bounds held out is just not true...though now that you've posted it here it will be oft quoted until it is legend. ^

Sure, the operation isn't flawless. There are constant moves going on to try & accommodate flights that are departing late or those arriving early. And yes, it can be a real pain in the booty, for passengers as well as those behind the scenes trying to get all you fine people to your destinations, be it to another flight or another cocktail.

I can tell you this statement has been confirmed as a good way to describe what often happens with gate/ramp ops (thanks for the laugh, as always, Mr. Hudson):

This, or the other obligatory ATL announcement: "Folks, we're just waiting on the ground crew to arrive to marshal the plane into the gate..."

Sorry folks, expect more delays in/out of ATL today. There was a one-hour groundstop earlier, the feds were having radar problems. It could take all day for the operation to recover.

Rumor has it, somebody was giving Sen. Harry Reid a tour of the facility and it went something like this:
Sen. Reid: "What does this button do?"
Tour guide: "Well sir, that would bring the world's busiest airport & Delta's primary hub to a screeching halt. It would take us an hour or more to re-boot the system."
Sen. Reid: "YIPPPEEEEEE!"

"That guy" claimed to be a very senior Delta employee (well over 30 years), though not management. He had to "wait that long": We were on the tarmac. He did have the exit row window seat, but not a beer.

Maybe he was just disgruntled after a long day. And maybe Delta's moving to lower frequencies with more mainlines and fewer RJ's is helping.

Overbooking gates isn't so different from overbooking flights. Among all the ATL arrivals, wouldn't there be about 36 MX's and WX's, on average? Airlines don't "plan" to bump pax; they just plan on some no-shows.

Of course, nobody likes the situation, not the Delta employees and not the pax, but it's just reality.

On that flight, the veteran Delta employee wasn't due to work until the next day. But when we finally got into our gate, he said he was going in that night (it was after midnight), because "I can see they need the help." A fine, loyal Delta employee, and my hat's off to him and his dedication.:-:^