OddOne: Even with computerised loadsheets, surely the role of the dispatcher is to co-ordinate the turn-round at/from the aircraft? How can they do this if they're in the gate all the time? Isn't that what passenger agents are for? In my view the more time that the dispatcher spends at the a/c the less chance there is of anything going wrong: it's the dispatcher's turn-round after all, they need to be responsible for it.