Take Cardiff "International". Not the worlds biggest airport. But it amazed me how many pax were late to the gate when the only departure was thier flight.
I can remeber dispatching the only flight of the night (Britannia to IBZ, IIRC) where everyone except a family of 4 were on the flight 20 mins before the departure time. As stated in BY's ground handling manual I asked for the bags to be located at -15mins. During this time a number of "name and shame" calls were made for these pax along with a search of the departure area. Their bags were found and taken off the aircraft at -10min. -5 I had a word with the captain and we agreed to offload the pax, close the door and push the aircraft back. I stayed at the gate for 10mins after the flight had departed to finish off my paperwork. On my walk back to the office I decided to go via the departure lounge and what do I find, a family of 4 sat quite happily reading books and what not. Anyhow I broke the news to them and as is the way with pax, it was my fault, and took them back to the checkin area. Now what struck me was that there was no-one else in the airport appart from staff and these 4 pax. All the doors to the gate were open untill I closed them on my way back to the office. So I asked them where they had been and why they didn't come to the gate with every one else. It turned out that they checked-in 3 hours before but didn't want to pay the airport prices for a meal and decided to go to the local carvery. They returned to the airport 45 mins before departure (start of boarding) but didn't make it in to the lounge untill the flight had departed. I tried explaining to them why they missed the flight, but it was no use as I was the one to blame for allowing the flight to depart.
Thats were my phobia of pax came from I believe......