What does it mean when a departing flight is late due to the customer service gate ?

Question

The gate mentioned is also the actual gate the flight departed from . I never heard this one before-or maybe I wasn't paying attention ??

Answer 1

Probably a passenger service issue. Anything dealing with terrorits or the like would be coded as "security" and anything dealking with bags would be coded as "ramp." If it was a passenger that was late, it would probably be due to a "late inbound." Of course, it could also have been something known as a "Gate Hold" where no aircraft are allowed to puch back from their gates due to a saturation of the ATC system. Each controller can only handle X airplanes, so when the total number of controllers times X is less than the number of planes in the sky, you all get to sit there and wait.

It happens a lot over Chicago and a lot in New York. Its generally because everyone and their mother wants to depart at 8am, so everyone shows up in those places at about the smae time. Air Traffic Control can anticipate this scenario and put a hold in place before they get to the point where there are too amny aircraft in the sky for them to handle.

Answer 2

Means that the plane was held at the gate by the agent. Could be for boarding problems, late connecting flights, etc.

Answer 3

could be that they are waiting on a passenger to get through security, or they are still loading bags or checking the aircraft.

Answer 4

Could mean anything, there aren't specific codes. Beligerant passenger, sympathetic passenger, computer malfunction, drunk staff, terrorist hijacking, something like that.