Captain's Authority Questions
Hello All,
I do not want to mention my company's name here publicly, but am curious about how things work at your individual airline.
Lately, my company has started to put some pressure on Captain's to:
1- Accepting aircraft with a Legally deferred (MEL) item,
2- Tracking/monitoring Captains that increase the Cleared Fuel after dispatcher finalizes his flt plan.
A bit of background for the above questions to help you understand where I am coming from:
1- They are claiming that we are the only US Major Airline where Captain's can still refuse an airplane with a legal deferral.
But a lot of Captain's see this as questioning their authority and/or pilot pushing.
A poor example is; would you take a 767-300 with APU inop, from US to say Buenos Aires on a 10+ hrs flt time, at night with some terrain/escape route concerns, limited airport availability, etc..
2- They are dispatching flights with about 45' (FAR Reserve), No Alternate (Domestic and some Intl) with about 15 minutes of extra fuel (Total of 1hr extra) for contingencies, sometimes 1+15..Of course there may be some exceptions at certain airports based on weather, airport capacity/demand,etc.
Most Captains add fuel to their comfort level after calling Dispatch, for now.
Recent JFK American airlines flight that declared an emergency due to crosswinds for low fuel status kind of makes me wonder if he was given the extra fuel needed that day.
I wonder if Captains typically accept the fuel given to them by their dispatchers or are they free to add fuel..
Thank you.