Sacred Off-Blocks Times?

[Atcham Tower]

I read in the latest issue of The Controller that IATA is targetting the industry, especially ATC, with its Save One Minute Campaign. Cutting just one minute on each flight worlwide will, IATA estimates, save $4 billion USD fuel costs etc in a year!

However, working against this is the sort of incident which happened to one of my colleagues a few days ago. An aircraft called for pushback but was told to hold position until a turboprop twin had parked on an adjacent stand. The delay was not more than two minutes but the captain complained vociferously and said that he was going to report it. Had he been authorised to push, the inbound turboprop would have had to wait as long as five minutes, with engines running of course.

It appears that achieving off-blocks times over-rules any consideration of overall fuel saving. A con on the part of the airlines so that they can boast they taxied on time even if they didn't get airborne until long afterwards because of slots, congestion etc. Push/pulling to a remote hold without starting engines is a good plan if space allows, but slow taxying to the holding point is hardly fuel efficient.

As my colleague did, I shall continue to give priority to aircraft inbound to the apron where it is only a matter of a couple of minutes delay to a pushback. Unless we get a different directive from management, which would seem to go against the basic principles of ATC - "safe, orderly and expeditious" and all that stuff.

I shall be interested in any comments from crews on this topic.

[Acomabird]

I fly in the US, in a hub and spoke system. I gave up along time ago worrying about "block times". off and in times. For me it all comes down to safety. There is a big push for on schedule/early departures for reasons you stated, but now fuel consideration are getting thrown into the mix. Large planes tend to burn more than small, and tend to be harder to move around if heavy. 1 minute saved for a larger plane, may be twice the fuel savings, if that is the driving factor.

If I am cleared to push back, and the ramp or ground control wants me to hold my position, I comply without complaint. There is usually something going on I can't see. The Captain that was "going to report", for being slightly delayed to expidite the flow, either had 1) A long day, 2) Doesn't get paid by the minute, 3) Or has a personality trait. that makes one say under their breath , "What an a$$hole".

There are going to be numerous programs out there, trying to tweak whatever is on the agenda at the time. Saftey should always be paramount. Start with that and see if you can fit the other in when needed. Never let, "Keep it safe", interfer with whatever is going on.

[BUSH BABY]

Has anybody come across the one were the captain releases the brakes and that is classed as the offblocks time:confused:. I encountered this a few years back. In theory the a/c could sit on stand for a long period of time (which often happened) and would be classed as an o/t dep for the airlines performance figures;).