Delay Codes

[Doug Taylor]

We're being asked to enter arrival/departure delay codes into ACARS when they occur.

I guess the ramp tower was reponsible for it, but no matter what the cause, it always seems to be issued as a 'cockpit crew delay' which is bringing heat on flight ops.

So we're being asked to note delays into ACARS with a series of codes in order to determine who is the actual cause of the delay.

Is this happening anywhere else?

[Mr_Creepy]

Midway went through that. No matter what we called in over the radio it always went to "cockpit crew delay."

They started installing cameras at the gates at RDU, and much to their surprise, the pilots were there every time!

[Doug Taylor]

While I was at Skyway, I had to give the ramp tower any delay codes via radio -- and I tried to be as honest as possible because I wanted the operation to improve and didn't have any problem with saying "crew delay" if it actually was.

I had a pretty good pal working in dispatch at Skyway and I'd always drop in to say hi when I had a "big sit" in MKE. Anyway, most of the codes were often changed from "ramp" or "delay in boarding" to "crew delay" almost every time.

[Mr_Creepy]

Some things remain constant airline to airline

We caught a PNS crew doing that to us once so we called dispatch and had them change it to "Agent Delay." I checked it again a few hours later and magically, our flight had departed on time after all!!!