cerealmarketer

jsloan

"Dynamic D:0", aka "A:0", aka "the thing I argued was the most important anyway." ^

tarheelnj

..."likely to have 'minimal impact on performance as the flights are expected to arrive on-time, even with the hold,'”

I hope this works. I also hope the software looks at onward connections, particularly international. EWR-FRA-MAA connection in FRA is only 65 minutes & a long walk as it is.

jsloan

If it works as designed, there will be no need to look at downline connections. All they're saying is, "if we can get off the gate X minutes late and still arrive on time, and there are connecting passengers coming, we'll wait X minutes." To me, this is common sense and precisely the reason that I never liked D:0 as a metric.

swiftaw

If this works (and that's a big IF) it'll be great. Never made much sense to insist on a D:0 departure when you are going to arrive 15 minutes early.

2 things I will say, firstly that the hold should only happen when it doesn't impact A:0, and secondly this needs to be communicated well to the passengers on the plane, something like "Our flight time today is shorter than scheduled, and we are still missing a few passengers coming from connecting flights, so we are going to wait a few minutes to give them a chance to board. We will still make an on-time arrival in XXX."

findark

I've noticed a new-ish pattern as part of the D:0 obsession -- if the thing we are waiting for doesn't require the door to be open (usually push clearance), they close the door and unlock the brakes to log the plane OUT. Then we sit around for a while until we get clearance to push

mrt88

i've definitely seen this a bunch lately!

Often1

Having this all figured out in advance so that the GA can call an audible makes all the sense in the world. The data required to make the determination that flight closing can be held for X minutes to still achieve an ontime arrival is all readily available. It is simply in different silos and easy enough to pair with connecting passenger data.

LarryJ

You can't get in the queue for pushback clearance until the doors are shut, jetbridge retracted, and you're fully ready to push. It would be like asking a traffic cop, who's directing traffic at a busy intersection, if you'll be able to proceed through the intersection without waiting ten minutes from now. He has no idea what the traffic situation will be then.

The early brake release is to allow the towbar-less tractors to capture the nosewheel. While the flight will show "OUT" on the app, most of the airplanes don't record the out time until they've moved about 10', or so, based on GPS position. That is the time that's reported and used internally for the D:00 performance. We see both numbers on the ACARS OOOI page (times page). Otherwise, we are not allowed to release the brakes until push clearance has been received. Anyone doing so is not following proper procedure.

764toHI

My sense is UA will adopt dynamic D:00 only to a certain extent because:

- The industry and Wall St cares, and wants to quantify on-time performance
- D:00 is a more easily manipulable statistic than A:00

I think what will happen is they will test out dynamic D:00 to see if they can maintain/improve A:00, and once they have enough data on that, all of the presentations going forward will present A:00 instead of D:00. Improvements in customer satisfaction due to more connections staying intact will be a nice side benefit.

nomad420

About time! Business partner flew IAD to IAH last Thursday early AM. Flight into IAH was late and missed connection to EGE by less than 5 mins. He asked that they hold the connecting flight for him, he was simply told they couldn't. Had to wiat until next flight 7 hrs later in IAH. Finally got on to his delayed into EGE and flight was then "diverted" at the last minute to DIA supposedly due to weather. Now delayed in DIA until next morning and stayed at a ocal hotel in Denver. Morning flight into EGE was full so he took CME (ground transport) to Vail. Arrives Vail Friday evening, approximately 36 hrs after departure. This system would hopefully help to reduce these types of travel nightmares. BTW, this trip was for work not just a ski trip, we needed him on the ground in Vail ASAP. UA says no compensation as it was a weather delay but I say this whole cluster was because of the original delay at IAH that was NOT weather related. Still waiting to hear how this will turn out.

findark

Fascinating! I wonder if I've had more of those tractors (how common are they?), because that's definitely the pattern I've seen a lot recently: close the door, release the brake, slight bump and the plane moves a bit, chill for 5-10m until we get a push or taxi clearance.

My thoughts on D:0 were largely from the fact that this also seems to happen precisely at the stated departure time, regardless of the forecast for taxiing.

Often1

Would holding the original EGE flight have caused a delay into EGE? If so, then the new program would not have helped out.

nomad420

Probably not, we are talking minutes here. I suspect that amount of time could be easily made up in the air.

eng3

How will WE the customers be notified that they are waiting for us? By flight status? Seeing a 5min status delay doesn't necessarily equate to the door being open an extra 5min. We're supposed to board 15min before the departure time. Also, will they wait for our bags too?