They ALL are playing on the "ON TIME" performance reports that the DOT requires. They had such poor On Time performance they started padding the Block-to-Block times. Now, I acknowledge they also took into account the time of departure, the airport etc., into their calculations. Example, block out @ KMIA between 0900-1000L and you will sit in the "Conga Line" for at least 20-25 minutes until you can takeoff. There are pluses and minuses, see my comment below in reference to the minus.
Matt, you were lucky. I fly American and about 60% of my flights back home to Miami, because we were anywhere from 20-35 minutes early, we had to wait on a gate. The end result, we only "arrive" almost on time. This tells me that AA does not plan "Real Time" and reassign the early arrivals to another gate, this may be a headache, but sitting on the taxiway and blocking that taxiway within spitting distance of your gate is frustrating for everyone, including the crew.
Well, for the aircraft, crew, maintenance, insurance and fuel (ACMIF) and it being a Global about $1200-1500 an hour - conservatively.
Richard, I'm just saying that the cost of the flight to ANC and back (not including the possible flight to Korea) way out weighs the cost of a First Class ticket to come back.
Sir Richard, I respectfully disagree with you, the practice is not an economical "back-up" since the block hour cost greatly out weighs the cost of a first class ticket on a commercial Airline. It seems Immelt was too good to travel with the rest of us peasants.
Jack Welch would never have allowed this to happen. Immelt is a liar and and idiot to think that the Board and stockholders would belive his idiotic statement that "he did not know about the 2nd jet following his on trips". Shows he had no knowledge of what was happening in his Company.
What the 2nd aircraft appeared at the same airports my miracle? Shear lunacy. The Board should terminate his pension.
The comment by Gene is way out of line; to even make such a statement is ridiculous and shows complete aviation ignorance. First of all, the Qantas engine failure is an isolated issue, these things happen quite a few times per day around the world. There is NOTHING wrong with ANY aircraft equipped with RR or GE or P&W engines, to name a few. The B747, all models, are one of the safest aircraft flying, as are ALL Boeing aircraft.
Before we start lambasting RR engines, let’s first find out what caused the failure in the first place!
