On another occasion, Ascot Ops hadn't bothered to note that the delayed departure of another aircraft from Brize meant that our return itinerary was impossible to complete legally. Although they'd known in plenty of time to ring me before busting any crew rest, they didn't. As a result, the first I heard of it was when my truly excellent groundcrew rang me to say they'd gone in to the airport early - and the jet hadn't even landed....it was still 2 hours out.
The itinerary, as usual, had about half an hour's 'fat' in it. Thus any departure delay of more than 30 min would make the itinerary illegal.
Why hadn't those useless beggars at Ascot sent a 'RevItin'? Because in the usual dumbing-down way of things, Ascot Ops was no longer the empire it once was; contrary to the airlines who put some of their brightest folk in roster management, Ascot Ops jobs were regarded as 'bad boys' postings, or twilight years posts....
So I rang them and asked for my RevItin. But first I'd checked with the DAMO at the airport to confirm that delaying the pax wouldn't cause an issue for them and was assured that they'd be 'kept in barracks'. So I worked out a plan with the Duty Ops bod - we would depart the next day at a time that would give us the maximum permitted crew duty within the rules. It was either that or arrive at Gander at 0100 local with 140 people to accommodate with nothing organised. Then I told everyone else the plan, thinking that would be the end of it.
Next day, off we trotted to the airport. After a de-icing faff (which would have busted our itinerary if we'd departed with minimum crew rest time...), we had an incident free trip home.
It was only some time later that I was hauled up before the boss. Some Bwigadier had moaned that his people had been late back (they were needed to fill in for striking firemen, sorry, 'firefighters', it seems..) and had caused trouble. Which had got to SASO, then down to station level. For it turned out that, contrary to the assurance I'd been given, the passengers hadn't been 'kept in barracks' - the poor sods had had to kip on the floor at the airport. No wonder their Oi/c had been sufficiently annoyed to moan to his boss about the feather-bed truckies... Why on earth the DAMO hadn't found accommodation for them, I was never told.
However, the station threw the problem firmly back at Ascot Ops, basically telling them to do their job and to support, not to hinder and harrass downroute crews when something unexpected happens.
Aircraft captains can only work on the information they have and the flight time fatigue rules laid down. If someone in a comfy office in the UK can't be bothered to assess the effect of delays on the often ludicrously tight itineraries dreamed up by their planners, why should the crew be expected to sort out the resulting mess?
I'm afraid that my perception of Ascot Ops was that it was keener to try and lean on crews to break the fatigue rules in order to save money than it was to ensure that itineraries were properly planned.
Is it any better these days?