[Jetliner]

Originally Posted by AirlinesMustPay

Why would the airline cancel the flight? All she is asking is that passengers must not be held on the aircraft as she was, and that they should wait out the delay in the terminal.

So why would the airline cancel the flight? They have a plane load of passengers ready to fly with their bags on board. The only difference is where these passengers wait out the delay. The airline loses nothing except having to deboard and reboard. But if people leave their carryons on board, just taking their medication and valuables with them, and everyone disembarks, re-boarding will take place in a jiffy. Half of the boarding time goes in passengers having to stow their carryons.

Yeah, except for the fact that if you are waiting out, it' due to weather or air traffic (or both) and once the flight has been released it needs to leave NOW, or loose it's spot for takeoff, and have to sit for another lengthy time. You need to remember that deplaning like that requires taxing back to the gate, unloading, and re-boarding, then taxi back out. Even if everyone leaves their stuff on the plane this is still going to be a 20-30 minute process. Bye-bye takeoff window.

As I said, it's not the right thing to do, but it will happen.

Jim - Continental was not able to do anything different. The government already made that determination. ExpressJet's crew elected to not allow the passengers off without the use of a jetway due to lightning. To that end it was in the best interest of passenger safety. The one's squarely at fault were Northwest (now Delta) since they wouldn't let the flight have a gate. Under Kate's plan this still could happen. The airline was not able to let the passengers off because of a lack of a safe way to do so at it's disposal. Her plan doesn't say that another airline has to help them out.