Jerry I sat in ORD Tower one Sunday afternoon and there were 85 aircraft in line for departure Al ----- Original Message ----- From: "Allan9" <exatc@xxxxxxxxxx> To: <AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 11:30 PM Subject: Re: Flow Control > Airline marketing normally controls the gate. They don't know or care > about the fuel. > Al > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Gerard M Foley" <gfoley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > To: <AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 10:49 PM > Subject: Flow Control > > >> Friday I was in a Southwest 737 that waited about half an hour at the >> gate in Columbus for clearance to start for Philadelphia. We made the >> flight in a couple of minutes over an hour, landing without delay. >> >> Returning Sunday night the plane left the gate and spent an hour on the >> taxiway, engines idling, moving half a dozen or more times, until we got >> to the head of the line and took off for our hour and a quarter flight to >> Columbus. >> >> Does it cost much fuel to have the engines turning over, revving up to >> move forward and so on for an hour, with a dozen or more planes in line? >> Couldn't the same excellent flow control that holds at the gate for a >> clear landing slot at the destination be used to hold at the gate until >> it is really time to get out to the runway at the originating airport? >> >> Gerry >> http://www.pbase.com/gfoley9999/ >> http://www.wilowud.net/ >> http://home.columbus.rr.com/gfoley >> http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/pollock/263/egypt/egypt.html >> http://foley.foleypages.net/~gerry/