Juan, if you re read my post I was saying that these days we often arrive excessively early due lack of holding and ground congestion.
T5 always has a shortage of stands and we should aim to arrive no more than shed arr time (STA) -15 mins.
Arriving 20/30 minutes early due to no holding often results in waiting on the ground for a stand or having a stand change which is then a logistical nightmare for the ground crews.
I'm afraid you are incorrect, cost index 0 will burn less fuel than cost index 20 even though the flight time is longer, (drag vs airspeed squared and all that). As long as we don't go over the planned block time and keep to schedule the crew costs etc stay the same.
I was not saying delay the flight, we can fly at the most economical speed to arrive when we should arrive as opposed to horrendously early.
I find it a little hypocrital when every day crew want to board early so that we can depart early to then land early and go home early, yet some claim we won't be able to do a service properly.
If the service can't be done in the proper time then it should and hopefully will be reviewed.
Sorry mods, hopefully misunderstanding cleared up.
Last edited by plodding along; 1st Dec 2009 at 11:21.