You guys telling me the clients are happy to be locked away at 0545 for a 6am departure and wait til the apron is clear of SLF til engine start? Then Le Mans start from the northern apron and the crews get a little put out when they taxy number 31 and get held on the ground for 30 minutes, doesn't sound like economics to me.
Dont know what stories are being told to the clients but it would seem to me that if a flight departed 20 minutes later and did not hold at the holding point for 20 minutes the arrival at the mine would be the same as if it went at 0600 and waited at the HP.
Another problem with cluster scheduling is that the number of miles between number 1 and number 30 needs to be at least 150 (5nm radar standard outside 36 Perth), tower throws them in the air 3 miles apart, TCU needs to stretch them to get 5 and sometimes 10 due to non radar coverage north of 160PH, the delays start to add up. The ATCs do their best within the confines of airspace, sep standards and noise abatement to accommodate everyone, however there is sometimes just not enough space to get everyone where they want to go, when they want to go.
Add Jandakot departures/arrivals (60 per day thru the TMA) and the odd military transit and the picture starts to become clearer. So dont tell me industry cant say to a client, look if we depart 20 minutes later we would arrive at the same time 'cause those nasty ATC types wont need to delay us for the other 30 or so heading the same way. Perhaps i'm dreamin'!
AND if you can't/won't then dont blame me when you are delayed. Old rules of ATC - one on the runway at a time and dont let them hit each other!