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Old 29th Sep 2004, 21:31
  #37 (permalink)  
GWYN
 
Join Date: Jan 2000
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An awful lot of people seem to be getting very hot under the collar here about a situation about which they evidently know very little. BACX are a large and well connected operation; they are hardly likely to suspend a captain for simply declining to work into discretion. These situations are rarely as simple as they seem, or as they are reported.

Consider a hypothetical situation where a series of flights are running late, for whatever reason. Captain X makes it quite clear before the final couple of sectors that (s)he will NOT work into discretion should it become necessary, even though it is made clear to him/her that that will result in the cancellation of the flight and the resultant inconvenience to a large number of passengers.

Consider then the situation where the final sector is running considerably late, but will still get said captain home without going into discretion. When the flight plan is then delayed to reflect a realistic departure time, it results in a further considerable slot delay, say up to an hour, which will definitely put the crew into discretion time. At that point the captain opts to exercise his/her discretion and says ‘No go.’ Soon after the crew depart the aircraft, for whatever reason, the slot comes forward to, effectively, the realistic delayed departure time, which would still allow said crew to arrive back at base without going into discretion. By now it is too late of course, the crew have already gone and the flight has been cancelled.

Anyone who flies in Europe, especially at jet captain level, should have some understanding of the CFMU slot system. They should therefore be aware that slots can and do come forward, as well as get later. There are even staff whose job it is to try and improve slot times by various means. To take the decision to effectively abandon the flight well in advance due to a poor slot could be seen to be irresponsible and unprofessional. Take a moment to consider the additional costs in money and loss of reputation for the carrier of that precipitate decision.

Only hypothetical of course……………..and No, I am not BACX management!
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