Flight: United #5473 IAD-MKE

Departing From: Washington Dulles (IAD)
Traveling To: Milwaukee Wisconsin (MKE)
ETD: 06:40PM March 8, 2005 EST (actual 10:10 PM EST)
ETA: 09:00PM March 8, 2005 CST (actual 11:10 PM CST)
Est. Duration: 1 hr 55 min (actual 1 hr 45 min plus delays)
Departure Gate: G10
Arrival Gate:
Seat: 8C (exit row, aisle)
Equipment: Canadair Regional Jet CL-65
Miles:
Other:

In my experience, the primary reason a flight is delayed is because of a problem with the equipment. Sometimes, there is a mechanical problem with the plane, and its just the luck of the draw whether they can get things going in time or not. Mostly, the problem is that the plane isn't there at all due to some delay in the flying schedule somewhere on its way to this airport. Logistics in the airline business seems to be a constant ballet of equipment moving its way from airport to airport, usually in some back and forth path between two or more airports. There really aren't spare planes sitting around to be swapped in at a moments notice, especially from the perspective of a single airport. I guess the planes are so expensive that if they aren't in the air moving people or cargo around, you're losing money. So, the first thing to do is to check out the window and see if the equipment is at your gate, particularly around an hour before departure assuming that its coming in, passengers get off, they get the plane ready, and you load and go.

Today I learned that the crew are an important part of this equation also.

There was a bit of weather around the northeast as we're getting those last few snowstorms before spring gets here. But, the plane was out the window so I figured we were OK. We then found out that the crew for this plane was coming in from Albany NY, and they hadn't left the ground yet because of snow. So, a 3 hours wait before the crew could get here. I didn't realize that the crew were as tightly scheduled as well. Of course, this is a regional carrier operating under the United Express banner, so they really don't have the whole United army behind them.

A couple hours to kill is horrible at Dulles any time, but Concourse G... -shudder-. Went on the bus shuttle over to Concourse C to wait in the Red Carpet club. Ended up not being so bad, except for getting to Milwaukee so darn late with a meeting early the next morning. Rough.

Flight was half full, so had the two seats to myself with no one in front or back. Not too bad, able to get the computer out and get some work done during the flight. When we landed in Milwaukee it was kind of empty, so we cruised through there pretty fast.