McCrosky
Well-Known Member
The problem is that managers and number crunchers want to get involved in the decision making process when they don't have the first clue of what's actually going on.
American planned their flights that way because the dispatchers got paid for it. It creates an unsafe situation and shame on the crews for accepting such low fuel loads. But hell, pay me an extra $17k a year and every one of my flights world divert too. Glad that's gone.
Well, first off I can't recall a hearing stories of AA flights diverting en mass on a daily basis. And when I read their fuel bonus plan it looked like it was reasonable, there was a penalty for too little planned and acceptance for IR Ops as I recall. That being said, the idea of paying the dispatchers to short fuel is kinda sketchy.
There are fuel abusers everywhere. And those individuals should be counseled on an individual basis. Same in the cockpit, we've all had to endure captain What If who one time had to hold for 5 minutes going into OKC on a clear day and rufuesed to land the 757 with less than 15,000 lbs. you want a fuel program to work, you have to manage the abusers and assign a reasonable workload. Otherwise, fuel becomes the easy way out and since Sandy add 45 minutes additional to every flight without consequence why should I have to deal? But it's hard to find managers that mange well.