Communication between dispatcher operations and pilots is three-dimensional compared to the old airliner days of the19 40s and 1950s
And yet we still got ourselves in trouble when the forecasters got the weather wrong in a Adelaide and Mildura.
Today operations offices can communicate directly from their offices on the ground to the flight crew in the cockpit whether the aircraft is on the ground or in the air – by ACARS, by CPDLC and by sat-phone – flights can be kept ahead of events like no other time in the history of aviation.
They can't at my airline because although we have new 737's we rely on HF radio when out of VHF range and it works about 50% of the time.
So accurate is the weather forecasting and alongside the real-time updates of the Aircraft Crew Alerting and Reporting Systems – pilots are able to make pre-emptive decisions
We still get unforecast fog every year so it's not that accurate.
However, some pilots still prefer to take larger amounts of fuel than the `minimum` fuel required
That's me 70% of the time. The other 30% of the time I agree that the FOD on the plan will cover any unforeseen issues.
Technology is often helpful but not always. Having an Ops controller in possession of critical weather information is of no use if they don't recognise the importance of it. We have ops controllers with no formal training on pretty low wages with a moderate turnover. I doubt any of them could tell you the difference between a TTF and a TAF. So with all the technology available, the human is still the bit where it most easily falls over .
and there is dispute between some pilots and airlines as to how much fuel must be carried.
It's pretty obvious why. The two groups have different motivators. The Pilots are motivated by their legal responsibility to carry enough fuel to safely negotiate any circumstances that arise during the flight combined with the desire to have a long career. The Airline managers are motivated by their legal responsibility to the shareholders. Two different jobs, two different skill sets, two different points of view, one has final say. Simple.