Surely the point is: is it acceptable to have a situation whereby in the event that one of your key personnel is unavoidably delayed, an entire planeload of passengers is held up for hours, with all the resultant knock-on effects. It does sound a bit amateurish.
People can tolerate delays when it is a matter of safety and a clear explanation is given. They understandably get highly frustrated when it is obvious that the cause of their suffering is plain old bad management.