The bean counters in orange land seem to think they can save pennies by only having one engine running on the ground. On paper of course this is a marvelous idea, but what they don't see is:-
- By not being ready at the holding point they loose opportunities to get airborne sometimes costing them 10 minutes or more holding.
- If they break while starting at the head of the queue then there is no end of trouble getting them out and keeping movements going.
- At a busy airport the wasted runway movement may not be made up until the end of the day - in effect every flight from the airport for the rest of the day is delayed by one orange aircraft not being ready.
- When pilots try to blag it and accept line-up clearance anyway with the expectation of being ready when cleared take-off (you wouldn't believe it, but some honestly think this is acceptable) the ensuing missed approach is fairly likely to also be oragne these days.
- When taxiing in and a tight turn in the wrong direction is required the taxyway is blocked (delaying another orange aircraft) while they re-start the other engine to enabble the turn.
Recognising some of this orange management have now requested that ATC inform pilots when they are e.g. number 3 to depart. Of courrse this still takes away any flexibility to make better use of a busy runway by flexibility.
So any shareholders reading this far perhaps you could encourage the bright sparks that came up with this idea to get aircraft ready by the time they get to the holding point.