Anyway, that’s enough of airline politics. The point is that NOBODY wants to get blamed for a late departure and once that door closes and the brake is released, the clock starts on the flight. If the door opens again, the first “departure” is cancelled and the “new” one is entered in the system once the door closes and the brake is released again. The hard-earned ON TIME departure is lost if they open the door to let another passenger on the aircraft. That’s why you virtually never see an agent open the door once it’s closed, even when the aircraft sits there at the gate for an hour, because they will carry the blame for the late departure.

 Never mind that it might get more paying passengers on the plane and on their way. There is no incentive for that! The simple fact is that airline management has decided that the “On Time” departure statistic for that flight is more important than getting another passenger (or another ten!) onboard, and the system is set up to make that a reality for the people buying the tickets.

 If this has ever happened to you, perhaps you stood at the gate for an hour waiving at the pilots, trying to convince them to let you on their plane, furious they were just sitting there talking on their cell phones. Believe me when I tell you that the pilots want to let you on as much as you want to get on and, more than likely, he or she was on that cell phone (at personal expense) arguing unsuccessfully with operations to open the door again and let the remaining passengers board the aircraft.

 Pilots (and FA’s and Gate Agents too) have this strange idea that they are in the business of moving PASSENGERS and not just making statistics look good, but airline management doesn’t agree. Virtually every incentive airline managers know is predicated on that OUT time and they aren’t interested in the practicalities of the situation.

 Even the gate agents want you on the plane, for more reasons than one. Most of them are just hard-working and underpaid professionals who think you ought to get the transportation you paid for, but are hamstrung by the system. Furthermore, as a practical matter, they would like you to be on the plane because then they are finished with you. If they deny you boarding, there is a good chance that not only will you be mad, but that they are going to have to deal with your angry self again, both situations they’d like to avoid.

 If you get on the plane, they can move on to the next challenge, and there are many.

 Mostly, all involved resent the fact that the airlines have set up the system so that they have an incentive to be uncollegial to each other and dishonest with the passengers followed by a session of finger pointing after the fact. For pilots, this distracts from other important duties they could be performing, like examining the weather for the next flight….

 As for why they close the door and keep you prisoner on the aircraft for hours and hours, you understand half of that already. Besides triggering the “departure” time of the aircraft, that OUT time also starts the clock on pilot and FA pay. Ever read a newspaper article where an airline executive in a labor dispute says, “We pay our junior pilots $25 an hour, which seems reasonable for an entry-level position.”? What that executive is NOT telling you is that the crews only get paid for flight time, or more accurately, “Block to Block” time. The clock starts with the OUT time and ends with the IN time.

 The rest of what that airline executive is not telling you is that while a pilot can only legally fly, and thus be paid, for a maximum of 8 hours in one day, he can be required to be on duty for up to 16 hours. Where I used to fly, the contract required that the Captain agree to exceed 15 hours, which they seldom did (agree) so that was the de facto limit. For regional airlines, it’s not uncommon to be on duty for 12-14 hours and only actually fly for four or five hours, because there is no incentive for the airline to make the schedules more efficient for pilots.

 If duty time is considered, there are many regional airline first officers who barely earn minimum wage and if they have a family, they definitely qualify for FOOD STAMPS!

 My last job as Captain of a regional airliner paid $42 per flight hour. So if I was on duty for 12 hours, and flew five, my compensation would look like this:

 5 hours X $42.00 = $210

 $210 ÷ 12 Hours on Duty = $17.50 per hour

 The airline would argue they also paid me $1.35/hour “per diem” (“per diem” per hour; I’m not making this up!) for the time I was away from home base. True, just as any other business traveler either gets per diem or can claim meal expenses, pilots receive an hourly meal allowance to which their employer applies the misnomer, “per diem.” That’s not payment for services. It’s reimbursement for expenses (for meals).

 That same airline executive will look at you with a straight face and see nothing wrong with “major” airline pilots receiving $1.75/hour “per diem” and “regional” airline pilots receiving only $1.35, as if lousy airport sandwiches are somehow less expensive for regional airline pilots!

 So, friends and neighbors, the reason the Captain backs the plane out on to the ramp and then acts surprised when he says, “Sorry folks. Air Traffic Control says we won’t be able to take off for Chicago for another two hours.” is that the airline refuses to pay him for his time if he sits in the gate with you, waiting for departure.

 And the airlines’ refusal to pay flight and cabin crews a reasonable rate for time on duty is what gives him the incentive to do that. Can you imagine if the rules were the same for city bus drivers?

 “From now on, you will only be paid for the minutes the wheels are actually turning. Time spent at stop lights, in traffic jams, breaks to use the toilet or between scheduled trips, etc. are on your own dime. Keep those wheels rolling!”

 It used to be that corporations had leaders, who set standards for corporate culture and ethics, and did their best to ensure that working conditions were conducive to collegial relations among staff, efficiency, and good customer service. Nowadays, the bean counters are all in charge and their only ethic appears to be,

 “A place for every bean, and every bean in its place…”