Magnum9

Just got to BOS and already:

DL2365 BOS-TPA 7:05am cancelled

DL926 BOS-RSW 7:10am cancelled

DL425 BOS-LAX 7:40am cancelled

Looks like the week is off to a rough start for DL @ BOS.

The JAX, FLL, MCO & MIA 7-8am non-stops all operating fine.

Anyone know what�s going on that�s causing these cancellations given they�re flights to different parts of the country and there�s no weather in BOS.

HDQDD

I noticed DL had the highest rate of cancels over the last few days compared to peers (UA, AA). I suspect (but don't have inside info) that this is related to crew shortages more than anything. There were some fairly significant delay programs for traffic entering FL yesterday...I'm sure those added times didn't help with their shortage of pilots.

Right now, for today:
DL already has 97 cancels
UA 18
AA 7
WN 7

xjaehyun

There was also a strong line of thunderstorms that affected parts of the south this past weekend, including going through the immediate Atlanta area and parts south of the city.

Magnum9

I did notice that which is why it was odd TPA & RSW were cancelled but JAX, MCO, FLL & MIA morning flights we�re all operating as normal.

Then there�s the LAX flight cancelled also which doesn�t touch the south.

xliioper

You don't know where the pilots are coming from. They don't fly the same aircraft all day long. The inbound from LAX-BOS was cancelled last night. Might have been a mechanical issue (the aircraft will operate tonight's LAX-BOS flight) or maybe pilots out of place or out of time due to the storms in ATL yesterday (ATL is a large base for the 7ER type).

emma dog

And again this morning. Flights from South Florida had to route up to Charlotte before turning southwest toward ATL.

Magnum9

Well it sounds like you do since you�re telling me I don�t. So where were the pilots coming from?

paul21

DL2817 was marked diverted and 1.5 hr late arrival
DL334 was late 2 hours for weather
DL2112 was late 2.5 hours for weather
​​​​DL1899 was 6.5 hours late for weather (the big one)
DL360 1.5 hr late for weather
DL882 was 2.5 hr late for unknown


My guess is the reserve pilots were coming in on DL1899 to relieve the late arrival issues but they didn't make it to their hotels until 6.5 hours behind schedule so they had to cancel for insufficient rest.

rylan

Expect more of a mess later today and tomorrow as well... and its not just crew. DL still has little to no slack in operations so taking a hit anywhere has big impacts on the rest of the schedule for days. Looking to be another rough spring for DL. Hoping this isn't going to be last last year where they had months of repeated meltdowns. Guess we'll find out soon with end of March/April school vacations and easter holiday coming up.

Magnum9

The TPA & RSW flights cancelled are both operated by 737-800�s and the LAX flight a 757. From the impacted flights you listed:

DL 2817 (BOS-BNA-BOS) is an A220
DL334 (ATL-BOS) is an A321NEO
DL2112 (MSY-BOS) is an A320
DL360 (ATL-BOS) is an A321
DL882 (LAS-ATL) is an A321NEO

Please correct me if I�m wrong but I�ve not heard of DL 737/757 pilots flying Airbus aircraft concurrently.

The last flight you listed DL1899 (MBJ-BOS) is a 737-800 and supposed to be non-stop but stopped off in ATL and delayed the flight to pick up pilots I have to assume. Otherwise, why would DL fly right into the weather and add the stop in ATL? Had they not done that they would have had one set of 737-800 pilots in place at BOS had they just operated DL1899 as normal MBJ-BOS.

diburning

You do realize that pilots can deadhead and don't have to fly the plane that they're arriving on, right?

paul21

I'll assume this is in good spirit, but anyway I was just looking for inbound flights because you were asking about crew. I know the answer you want is that Delta is incompetent, but it seems like you have 0 appreciation of how an airline operates and the constraints they must satisfy.

Pilots:
1. Pilots can fly up to a duty limit based on when they report, and at their discretion, they can add 2 hours of duty time due to IROPS.
2. Pilots cannot violate their rest requirements, nor should they report if fatigued
3. BOS is not a pilot base, so every pilot flying a morning flight must be there in the morning from the night before, and they must be rested the minimum time

Pilot Reserves:
1. A certain number of pilots are on long call and short call reserve
2. Long call means they will be asked to fly the day prior while short call means they need to report at their base within 2-3 hours or so
3. BOS is not a pilot base, so if a pilot is going to fly an 8AM flight, the pilot needs to be short called plus flown to BOS; without violating rest this means the pilot must arrive 9.5 hours before the flight (roughly by 10pm)
4. An ATL-BOS flight plus short call means they need to call up a reserve pilot at 10-3-3 = 4 PM at the latest to fly the morning flight

Pilot Fungibility:
A 737 pilot can fly any 737 in the fleet (738/739)
An A320 pilot can fly A319/320/321
A 7ER pilot can fly 757 and 767-300 but not 764

Tails (aircraft) are only an issue if there are cancellations, which is only:
DL2475
So BOS would presumably be short a single A321 overnight.

Two cancels you mentioned are on 737-8's. We know the one crew from MBJ came in 6 hours delayed, so they would have to push back 6 hours of flying. That's a BOS-TPA/RSW out and back given that delay, so they were short one crew and cancelled the turn.

So let's say:
1. BOS-TPA cancelled due to late arrival of MBJ-BOS, 737 crew needed 6 hours additional rest
2. BOS-RSW cancelled due to pilot shortage
3. BOS-LAX cancelled and flown BOS-ATL-BOS to pickup next BOS-LAX flight due to A321 shortage

To avoid cancelling the BOS-TPA/RSW flights, you'd need to deadhead in two 737 crews on short call to BOS. That means they need to have these crew being paid to sit and do nothing unless something goes wrong--there is a limit to what can be done affordably.

To avoid cancelling the BOS-LAX or BOS-ATL flight, they would need to ferry an aircraft (A321 or other) to BOS, to basically un-cancel the other flight.

So short of having unlimited crew at all airports available 24/7, the airline has to make some reasonable assumption about backup availability. Sometimes this is wrong (2021/2022), and sometimes the weather just outpaces the available supply of backup crew. They can and do offer double pay to entice someone sitting on the sidelines to come in, but it's a game between the pilots and the airline on whether or not those are filled (holding out = more pay potentially).

So faced with limited crew, they had to make a decision:
1. Fly as many ex-ATL flights as possible with available crew
2. Have them deadhead in to BOS some 6 hours before the scheduled arrival of the delayed flight and hope they are not wasted

ETA: fixed some minor details on re-read