How big of a fine for delayed flight?

Question

Pilots pissed

9 minute delay

Company contracted out to Airline

ground crew could of prevented this if spent less time complaining who does or does not want to do what during ground time.

Answer 1

Sorry, you're probably not going to like my answer.  I believe pilots should be free to decide whether or not a flight goes.  Any fine for delayed flight would inhibit this freedom.  And when a pilot does not have that ability, you substantially reduce the safety of that flight.

Answer 2

There should never be fines for this kind of thing. Pilots should be able to do what they need to do when, and only when they have agreed clearly on what their roles are. Aircraft operators should never be punished for these kinds of things, since it puts pressure on pilots to rush, which gets people killed, and causes problems that in turn slow you down even more.

In fact, it is so important for pilots to be able to do their jobs without repercussions, that the FAA contracts out NASA to collect data from pilots when there has been a mishap. It is far more useful to be able to learn from mistakes than it is to be vengeful. When there is an accident, Pilots are not put on the spot, they are allowed to take 10 days to think over what happened and give the inspectors the best information possible. Pilot rarely are prosecuted, rarely lose their jobs, and usually are allowed to continue to fly. As far as I know, there has never been a situation where a pilot who was let off caused another accident, although Im sure some of them have been in accidents that were not their fault. Pilots are held to very high standards during check rides, so their is little chance of problems because of neglect.

Since it is important to maintain an environment where the pilots perform their best, I do not think there should be any fine in this case, even if it was possible.

Answer 3

There's a lot of variables.  It's not really a fine but extra operating costs.  Usually around $60 per minute.  The airline might have to pay for the extra time on the gate, especially if another plane is scheduled for that gate.  There's also missed "on time bonuses".

http://www.avascent.net/publications/TAR...

http://www.airlines.org/economics/specia...

It all because the airline wants to save money by contracting the cheapest company to do the work.

I work for  airline as an engineer and I know exactly what you mean.  The airline I work for has delays and confusion daily but on the other hand we get contracted to work on another airlines plane,  There are no les then 7 different contract companies working that flight.  It's up to that airline to determine who does what and should be clearly stated in each company's contract agreement.  They also have their own people overseeing the operation so there's no question on who does what.

Answer 4

Nobody gets fined (nor should they), although it does cost the airline money when a plane is sitting on the ground.  A lot of things can cause a plane to depart late.  Things that are most often beyond the control of the pilots.  It happens.  Imposing fines would make things worse as it would cause people to rush and make mistakes.

BTW, 9 minutes is nothing.  Most pilots would report that as an on-time departure.

Answer 5

9 whole minutes??? wow....I say levy a fine big enough to bankrupt the airline, that will teach em.

Answer 6

I think I can offer a different point of view than others have.

At Skywest, they say the FAA charges them $3,000 for every 3 minutes a flight is delayed. Is that true or propaganda to get employees to strive to be on time? It's not the feds... If Skywest is operating for United, then you bet United could charge them for a delayed flight. That sounds like what you experienced.

Typically, passengers have connecting flights and if they have to be rescheduled due to an unavoidable delay that costs United (just using them in this example, most major airlines contract a smaller airline to do their low volume airports).  So the delay fee helps cover the costs of a mistake where they were not at fault, and provides incentive to be on time.

But ultimately, a pilot does have the final authority to delay any flight.  

Answer 7

From what you describe, it sounds as if the ground guys were a bit confused and didn’t have their act together. Nonetheless, there are no fines levied for delays. Next time they may have things sorted out a little better. Nine minutes is nothing.