![]() It’s not like an Emergency Room where we never know from one moment to the next how many arrivals there will be. ![]() The number of gates which can accommodate only certain airplane types is probably quite small. If the gate is occupied, why can’t the airplane go to a different gate?Įveryone, pilots, crew, airport, pax, people online on FlightAware or PlaneFinder or FlightRadar has known for hours EXACTLY what time the flight will land, plenty of time to rearrange gates. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!!! Arrive 20 or 30 minutes early, about which the flight crew ALWAYS makes a big deal, and then spend 25 or 35 minutes or longer in the penalty box because “our gate is occupied”, about which the flight crew offers nary a peep. It’s one of the, if not THE, most annoying and poorly-understood aspects of commercial flight. The rationale behind “waited 20-30 mins for a delayed flight to clear our gate” would make a fascinating blog post. It seems rather unreasonable for such a last-minute schedule change, but in this case no one was left behind. But this was the first time I’ve ever seen a flight departure board post an “early” departure. Most of us have been on flights that are delayed and we’ve probably also experienced flights that have departed early if everyone happens to board on-time. I can’t help but wonder if there may be more to the story. In all my years of travel, I’ve never seen anything like this. I doubt (though may be wrong) the flight would have departed early if it had not boarded full (though perhaps at the 15-minute mark, those passengers who had failed to board would be unseated, nonrevs cleared, and then the door closed). ![]() I have to imagine, though, that the “early” departure and frequent “final boarding” announcements from the gate agent were meant to cajole passengers onboard. And indeed, the flight did take a bit longer than usual, though we still landed a couple minutes ahead of schedule (I loved it – make redeyes as long as possible if I have a bed to sleep in!). Indeed, the aircraft door did close three minutes later and we pushed back almost 20 minutes early. He told me that due to some “Air Traffic Control” issues we needed to leave early to arrive on time. I proceeded immediately to the gate and asked the gate agent what was going on. Again, at 10:15pm a “final call” was made for the flight.
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