XPost: misc.immigration.usa, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage, rec.travel.air   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: deport.indian.it.scabs@hpe.com   
      
   Brittany Wengel was supposed to fly Delta to Florida on Thursday   
   for a long weekend away from a gray New York City. As of Sunday,   
   she was still grounded.   
      
   Delta, which had canceled her original flight to Fort   
   Lauderdale, rebooked her on another direct one for Sunday   
   morning before canceling that one as well and offering her a   
   multiple layover option instead.   
      
   “They rebooked me on something today that has three legs,” the   
   24-year-old marketing professional said on Sunday. “It would   
   take 12 hours of flying just to get to Florida from New York.”   
   With her return flight scheduled only two days later, she   
   decided to forgo the less-than-ideal rebooking and shelve her   
   spring weekend getaway plans altogether.   
      
   Days after a massive storm struck Atlanta, Delta Air Lines Inc.   
   is still recovering from what airline insiders term an   
   “irregular operation.” The nation’s second-largest carrier has   
   canceled about 3,500 flights since Wednesday, more than the   
   2,300 canceled during the powerful computer failure in August   
   that prompted Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian to apologize to   
   passengers.   
      
   Perfect Storm   
      
   Fueling last week’s meltdown were Delta’s reliance on its   
   Atlanta mega-hub and rules concerning how long flight crews can   
   operate. While much was beyond Delta’s control -- including the   
   surprisingly wicked storm that grounded all Atlanta flights for   
   nearly five hours -- passengers, aviation experts and the   
   airline’s own flight crews wonder if the carrier was slow to   
   anticipate the storm’s severity and react quickly enough when   
   communications started to break down.   
      
   “I do not want to underestimate the chaos that a five-hour   
   ground stop would cause,” said Bob Edwards, a former chief   
   information officer at United Continental Holdings Inc. who   
   recovered from several storms and computer outages during his   
   tenure there. “Canceling quickly and getting ahead of it and   
   staying ahead of it with cancellations is the key.”   
      
   A Delta spokesman wouldn’t comment on the issue Sunday.   
      
   Delta had canceled 150 flights by mid-afternoon Sunday, an   
   improvement over the prior two days when it canceled more than   
   1,200 combined, according to flight tracking site   
   FlightAware.com. The carrier said its operations were   
   “stabilizing” Sunday, but that rules mandating pilot and flight   
   attendant rest were creating problems in finding people to fly   
   and staff planes.   
      
   “We know this is extremely frustrating for our customers and we   
   apologize for that,” the airline said in a statement Sunday.   
   “Delta teams continue to work around the clock to fully reset   
   our operation and keep customers informed.”   
      
   Passenger Distress   
      
   Tales of passengers missing weddings and even pilots stuck in   
   remote airports waiting for return trips to Atlanta were all   
   over social media and present a challenge to an airline that   
   prides itself on the best on-time arrival rate among its peers,   
   according to Department of Transportation data. This is the   
   third major cancellation event since summer, though the other   
   two were caused by computer outages.   
      
   Things were so backed up at Delta’s operations center that on   
   Saturday the carrier urged pilots not to call in, and instead   
   use an automated system called Roll Call for communicating with   
   crew schedulers, an internal communication to pilots showed.   
      
   Edwards, who left United in 2014, said the majority of Delta’s   
   problems were almost certainly beyond the airline’s control. The   
   Federal Aviation Administration called a ground stop for flights   
   at Atlanta for at least 4 1/2 hours Wednesday, according to   
   tweets from the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International   
   Airport. A halt of an hour or two is more common, Edwards said.   
   An outage of nearly five hours makes things “exponentially   
   worse,” he said.   
      
   That is long enough that many pilots and flight attendants no   
   doubt ran up against federal regulations on how long they can   
   work before resting. In recent years, things have become so   
   strict that a pilot can be sitting in the cockpit awaiting   
   takeoff and determine that he can’t reach his destination before   
   timing out, Edwards said. He would have to disembark and the   
   airline would have to find another pilot, he said.   
      
   “There was probably a large number of pilots and crews that   
   timed out, and they timed out in places where there probably   
   were not replacements,” Edwards said.   
      
   The trick is to get ahead of storms by proactively canceling   
   flights, which prevents airlines from running afoul of flight   
   crew rest rules and helps them reset their networks, he said.   
   The question is whether Delta canceled enough flights at the   
   outset to get ahead of things, he said. That’s especially vital   
   in a hub as big as Atlanta, Edwards said. Sixty percent of   
   Delta’s fleet goes through Atlanta on any given day, the carrier   
   said last week.   
      
   ‘Unprecedented’ Weather   
      
   Delta Chief Operating Officer Gil West on Thursday noted Delta’s   
   surprise at the storm’s severity.   
      
   “Wednesday’s severe weather was unprecedented for Atlanta and   
   the specific track and intensity of weather like this is often   
   difficult to forecast,” he said in a statement.   
      
   Another issue: the complex way that crews are paired up   
   nowadays, said Michael Baiada, an aviation consultant and former   
   pilot for United. Pilots, flight attendants and aircraft often   
   come together for only a single flight -- say from Atlanta to   
   New York -- before the pilot may head off on a flight to   
   Chicago, the flight attendants go to Washington and the aircraft   
   is sent to Dallas.   
      
   That creates huge complexities, with pilots and flight   
   attendants reaching their maximum hours at different times,   
   Baiada said. He prefers the old system of pairing them all up   
   into a team, he said.   
      
   “It becomes much more complex because you’ve made all these   
   pieces all over the map,” Baiada said.   
      
   Wengel, the passenger from New York who missed her Florida   
   vacation, said she’s been loyal to Delta because of its   
   reliability in the past. She says she’s rethinking things now   
   based on her experiences this week.   
      
   “This will probably impact my view of Delta, but we’ll see what   
   their response is as a result of this,” she said. “So far this   
   has been handled so irresponsibly.”   
      
   https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-09/fliers-   
   patience-thins-as-delta-s-recovery-moves-into-fifth-day   
      
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