Flight delays are annoying. Rolling delays are even worse. Sometimes an airline genuinely doesn’t know what’s going to happen. First, an inbound aircraft is delayed. And another flight delays where your crew are coming off. But then as boarding approaches they discover a mechanical problem – and what at first seems like a simple issue reveals something more time consuming, like a part that’s going to take longer to get.
That’s all understandable. What is more frustrating is when an airline clearly knows that a departure time is impossible but doesn’t update it until the last minute. You’re standing at the gate 15 minutes to scheduled departure and boarding hasn’t started yet because the plane isn’t there yet the flight still shows as departing on-time. You could have gotten something to eat, or stayed in the club longer.
Equally frustrating to late departures – or maybe even more problematic – is departing early. It’s the Goldie Locks problem. You plan on the basis of the airline’s schedule, and departing early means you have less time than you though to make it to the airport and through security. You may miss your flight!
Post by @svatikirstenView on Threads
I especially hate when airlines publish delays – give new departure times – and then move flights back to their original departure time (or something in between). Departure times are something you should be able to rely on. Things happen to delay a flight, but except in the most extreme emergencies an airline shouldn’t move a flight earlier. If there’s a four hour delay, I’m not leaving home to head to the airport at the originally-planned time. Move a flight back, and I’m not there to board.
Gates usually close 10 minutes prior to departure, and passengers need to be in the gate area 15 minutes prior, but times are relative to the published reference point. If that reference time changes, customers lose out. In this example it’s a Delta flight leaving just 5 minutes early. Delta seems to do this more than other airlines.
While it’s ‘only’ 5 minutes, it means that they’re effectively changing the contract of carriage to 15 and 20 minutes, respectively, and that’s highly problematic. You may have decided to get a Starbucks with 5 minutes and your latte means you’re too late to fly.
Delta flights are only permitted to leave early if all checked in customers have boarded. If they haven’t, we are supposed to wait until the normal departure time.
There are 2 types of passengers “cutting it close.” One is connecting passengers. I have sympathy for them. Another is egotistical passengers who intentionally arrive at the airport at the last possible moment because they believe their own time is too valuable to “waste” in airports. I have no sympathy for these people.
Flights are allowed to leave early if everybody is onboard. If you intentionally wait until T-15 you’re often holding up what could be an early departure. That makes you an a-hole. Please do not be an a-hole.
@SFO/EWR – lol no it doesn’t. Showing up at T-14 and expecting to still board and throwing a fit if you can’t makes you an a-hole. Showing up at T-15 just means you can manage your time extremely well and don’t like wasting it at the airport.
@Joe C. Thank you for this common-sense reply. If you’re a checked-in passenger, the plane is not leaving early without you on it. Notices of an early departure are aspirational, as in “hey, if everyone boards now, we can get out early. Come on!”
Leaving early is NOT an “on time departure” airline company executives!
Non Starter
5 minutes..if all checked in passengers have boarded what does it hurt, why should it make one iota of difference? They aren’t leaving anyone behind. Get over it.
If you are not connecting (you are not in control of when your flight arrives at the airport) get to the gate half an hour or more before boarding. Leaving early and arriving early is awesome as long as there is an open gate. I commend Delta for this practice and encourage all other airlines to do it as well.
Is Delta trying to be American now? Pushing back early?
This article just shows how yet again the author is so out of touch. Flights do not depart early without all passengers who checked in are on board. Nobody is getting left behind because people want to get to their destination early give me a freakin break.
@ Joe C., this is unfortunately not the case in my experience. Recently my family and I were returning to Atlanta from Newark on Delta and timed it so we would leave the Delta lounge to be at the gate exactly 20 minutes before departure. As we got to the gate with minutes to spare we weren’t acting in a hurry to board (throwing trash, coffee cups away, readjusting bags on kids, etc.). The gate agent told us we had to board immediately as they were about to close the gate as the flight was departing early. I specifically pointed out we were 20 minutes early and she pretty much just shrugged as if “oh well”. It wasn’t a big deal as we were going to make the flight, but it did cross my mind what if we had delayed leaving the lounge for an extra minute or two. All to say they were definitely in the process of closing the door when we walked up and we obviously had no boarded yet.
Swiss International FREQUENTLY departs early from SFO but NEVER before every. single. passenger that’s booked is aboard, seated and ready for departure.
Complete non-event… they do this to try and get everyone there early. If all are on board, they leave early. If not, they wait the extra 5 minutes. The gate doesn’t close early if any checked in passengers are missing.
I have been on Allegiant flights that have had everyone on board and we left 25 minutes early – once at Denver even! Getting to destination 40 minutes early (and a gate was open) was fantastic.
I love early departures. Keep them up!
On American, policy is to close the aircraft doors 15 minutes prior to departure so if everyone is on board there’s no need to wait. Push back!!
Delta pulls this garbage all the time for the last ATL-DCA flight – and it’s usually 10 minutes “early,” not 5. Missed two tight connections in the last year because of this and got to spend the night at ATL. Should be IDB (because I was at the gate 20 minutes before scheduled departure) but was told to pound sand. And not surprisingly both flights were also oversold. Keep descending Ed.
I’m a delta gate agent. We only leave early if all ticketed passengers are boarded AND we get permission from the operations center. If one passenger is missing, we cannot leave until the scheduled departure time.
@Gary Basic journalism would mean contacting Delta PR inquiring if they are leaving passangers behind before publishing the story and understanding why they are doing this. A little research (contacting Delta, speaking to a gate agent, or pilot) would have added credibility to your story.
Passengers are expected to be at the gate NO Later than T-20. So if the plane door closes at T-10 to leave early I don’t understand why this is a problem. I get there may be late connecting passengers and the airline should try to allow those passengers a chance to make their flight.
What is lost here are the many, many ways in which flights leave early but can still arrive at the arriving gate late, sometimes late enough to cause misconnects. Anyone that flys enough knows leaving on time doesn’t aways mean arriving on time.
Personally when the plane backs off a little early I’m always relieved. I either have a connection to make or want to get home/to the hotel.
I’ve had both Delta pilots and local GAs say they were trying to get a flight out a little early because if they were already away from the gate with the boarding door closed and jet bridge disengaged at official departure time, it made it significantly less likely they’d get hit with a ‘hold at origin’ order from ATL ATC, which are very common for short haul flights into Atlanta during peak airspace congestion time.
So something that’s officially a three minute early departure means you avoid the 10-20 minute hold, something that both ops and passengers are generally going to be satisfied with.
As far as I know, the cutoffs still go by scheduled departure time, not actual. Departing early is fine as long as all checked-in pax are onboard. There are quite a few situations where this makes the difference between a slightly early departure or a very delayed departure (i.e. if there are storms approaching some part of the flight path and they’re trying to get out [or in] ahead of them.)
The bigger problem is the proactive rebooking on connections that passengers actually could make, like what PenFed mentioned above. While I haven’t been stuck overnight because of it, I have had that happen, where I got to the gate in time, but they had already rebooked me on another later flight and closed the door (and gate agent was even gone from the gate area.) While I get that most passengers would not have made the connection (in one case, I got the alert on the Fly Delta app that the flight was boarding while we were still flying the downwind leg on approach on my previous flight,) those of us who fly Delta often and know ATL like the back of our hand can still make those. It would be nice if they would at least give an option to decline the proactive rebooking for connections that will still have at least, say 10-20 minutes.
Anyone who travels a lot knows that showing up 20 minutes before departure is NOT the same as showing up 20 minutes early. An on-time departure is the result of coordination among many people. Shifting that to 5 minutes early increases the chance a flight is not late.
An early departure due to a break in the weather is far better than waiting around for an hour or two and then having the crew time out.
The ones doing the most carping are sucking down that last drink in the lounge or bar.
@Big-j what planet do you live on? 30 minutes before BOARDING time. Lets see this AA board most planed at T40 and closes the door at T10, ill even give you T15 here, so you want me to show up to the gate a full 55 minutes (30 plus 25) before i have to be on board the plane? 100 flights a year equates to 5500 minutes, just under 92 hours or just under 4 extra days of my life wasted at an airport gate each year. Yeah not doing that. Ill come strolling in at t15 and spend those 4 days doing something productive.
A significant share of my SAS flights leave the gate early. I don’t know if that is because all checked-in passengers have boarded the flight early enough for that to happen without leaving anyone behind. Delta and some other US airlines have a habit of sometimes closing the boarding a few minutes too early and causing passengers at the gate to be denied access to the plane even before it’s necessary to have the plane door shut for an on-time or pre-on-time departure recorded.
This nearly happened to me a few weeks ago. I schedule my Delta flight. Plan up the bus trip to get there so I’m not paying Uber’s exorbitant fees where the driver only gets a tiny slice and set things in motion. Bus arrives around 10 minutes late. The plane has decided the scheduled departure time is now going to be 10 minutes early which is something I’ve never seen before and didn’t think was even possible. But this is fine because I always arrive at the airport about 1 hour to 1.5 hours before boarding finishes. This just cuts into my buffer.
But of course things only get worse from there. TSA is packed. The TSA app said expect 15 – 30 minutes. I should still have time and the line is moving fast. But they have those new machines and something is terribly broken with them because they are having to manually scan around half the bags that come through. My bag was one of them. There’s so many bags in that rescan line that it prevents the other bags from even being scanned by the machine because the conveyor belt is now blocked. The lady doing the manual scans takes 20 minutes to go through the first bag before clearing it. That’s not an exaggeration. Next few bags are maybe 5 minutes each. Then she gets to the bag just before mine. They are a professional photographer and she needs to pull out every lens (easily $10k worth of lenses in the bag) and scrub down all the glass and repack them. This is another 15 minutes easily. Finally gets to my bag and opens up all my laptops unsuspends them and sticks them back in my bag. Done in 3 minutes.
Now that I have my phone back I check the gate and it is 36 which if you know AUS is the last gate in the airport and the one furthest away. It is so new and far away it isn’t even on their official map. Somehow make it just as the door was about to close. I asked how much time I had and the agent said 3 minutes. Should have been 13. Early departures should be illegal.
And before anyone gets on my case about delaying what could have been an early departure we got stuck on the tarmac for 30 minutes after all that. And to put icing on the cake when we finally did take off I watched a bird fly right by the window (I have a single frame of video of it) meaning we likely had a bird strike incident that we were never informed of.
Still a better experience than American.
It’s 2024. Every passenger, or close to it has a smartphone. They can have the airline app. They can give that app permission to tell the airline my position in the time leading up to the flight. Airlines can know if they try to move a flight up if the passengers can make it. If they see I am 10 minutes from the gate and they want to leave early, they can send a cart for me, it’s worth the money to them. And yes, they can open the door for me if they are the ones who made it hard to make my flight. They can even have a car drive me on the tarmac to the gate. They can’t do this every time but they can do it when they need to, when it’s important.
Way back in olden times, I remember boarding a midnight (I think) red-eye LAX-MSP on Northwest. I got tons of dirty looks from passengers and a snarky comment from FA along the lines of glad you made it. I was on time, like actually a bit early since that’s how I fly. Turns out that flight had a lot of regulars who all understood the custom was to show up early and leave early. Being new, I messed up the system… Apparently they had managed to leave REALLY early before if a slot was available and all passengers loaded. Who knew?
While not likely the case in the photo, sometimes an early departure is required if the runway at the arrival airport is closing and an on time or delayed departure would cause the flight to arrive too late. Many airports don’t give much of a heads up other than a few days at most, plus extended flight times from stronger winds can cause a late arrival and it has to be countered by departing early. I have done this. The other option is to wait until the morning.
I have been on a number of flights that have left the gate early. Not a problem for me as I make sure I am at the gate early, if it is possible. I can see where it could be a problem for those with short connection times as happened to me once in Seoul. The airline held the airplane a bit so those making it through transit inspection could make the flight. I had asked an airline agent about the short time and he directed me to a different line for select passengers.
I am all for a flight leaving early If everyone is accounted for. Conversely, it really ticks me off when people DELAY flights, because they can’t pry their butts loose from a stool at the bar.
If you are denied boarding in a situation like this, and you met the orginal scheduled departure time requirements, you are entitled to denied boarding compensation. The carrier must compensate you in cash unless you elect another from of compensation that the carrier offers. If the airline refuses, reach out to the Department of Transportation.
There you go again, Gary.
Bashing Delta without getting all of your facts straight.
They can only leave early , if ALL of their passengers are onboard.
Just STOP!
@SFO/EWR: you forgot to sign out of your main when trying to create drama. Or is that Gary.
This topic is in my wheelhouse. As a former GA with over a two decades of experience and an employee with over 33 years total experience at DL, I’d like to address the question: “why does DL depart early?”
First, that’s an excellent question. There are many aspects to the answer depending upon your vantage point. But before I get into specifics, I have to state the obvious: time only runs in one direction and it cannot be controlled by any force we are familiar with. Everyone working at the airport has a clock running in their head at all times. It’s intrinsic to running a scheduled airline. With that said, DL publishes the following passenger rule for a domestic flight, “Additionally, you’re required to be at the gate and ready to board 15 minutes before scheduled departure.” Why is that important? It’s vital that passengers board in a timely fashion if the airline is to achieve an on-time departure. Should the boarding process be delayed or get bogged down, the likelihood of an on-time departure quickly dissipates. So, in a typical flight with boarding beginning at the appropriate time and the clock is T-15, the GA will announce final call and ensure that all standbys have been cleared into any available seats. But what happens when there’s a customer(s) who has checked-in but has not boarded? First, the GA will check to see if there was a technical issue meaning the passenger did board but the computer doesn’t show that. The GA will rectify that. But what if the passenger simply hasn’t boarded? The GA will then attempt to ascertain the passenger’s whereabouts by looking at the reservation. Is the passenger on a late arriving flight? Did he already depart on an earlier flight? Or is the passenger simply not present? The GA may then page the passenger locally as well as having the airport folks do a terminal page. All the preceding steps are done with amazing speed.and efficiency. The GA may wait a few more minutes for the passenger to appear. There may still be standby passengers at the gate waiting for an available seat. So, if the checked-in passenger fails to arrive at the gate house, the GA will release his seat as he “failed to comply” with published rules. Then the GA will clear a standby passenger into that seat.
Now, there’s more…
Since the GA has cleared.a standby passenger close to departure time, it’s very likely that there’s no more room for carry-on bags which means the GA must tag the luggage and get it to the ramp agent for loading. The ramp agent scans the tag and the.aircraft bag count is updated for weight and balance purposes. After all that, the GA inputs the final passenger counts into the computer and generates the the pilots weight data record which is necessary to bring to the pilot a minimum of 5 minutes prior to scheduled departure time. But, the passenger boarding door still cannot be closed until the lead flight attendant states that the cabin is secure. That f/a can only say that if certain conditions exist…i.e..passengers seated, bins closed etc. Then, the boarding door can be closed. But we’re not done yet. The pilots are busy inputting the final weights into their flight management computer. And they have more checks to perform before they can show the flight, “out.” If there’s a warning light anywhere in the cockpit, as an example, it must be addressed. After all that, the first officer will flip the switch to show the flight is “out.”
So, again, why does DL sometimes leave a few minutes early? It amounts to this: it’s a best practice for the following reasons: (1) by avoiding waiting until the last possible moment, it allows the airline staff to resolve any last minute issues that could otherwise delay a flight. So, when everything has gone according to plan, then the airline will want to dispatch the flight because that helps ensure it arrives at its destination on schedule or early. It also frees-up the gate for the next aircraft. A single Delta aircraft can have up to twelve stages in a day. Each stage is a separate flight. That one aircraft can transport well over a thousand passengers in one day. It’s imperative that the first flight of the day for that aircraft depart on-time because it will have an adverse cascading effect on the other stages of that aircraft if it doesn’t.
Passengers want on-time departures. Behind safety, of course, that’s possibly the single most important metric. So, DL strives to achieve that goal with everything we do. And an on-time departure helps to ensure an on-time arrival which is also very important.
Look at it this way, by employing the old bromide: “Under promise, over deliver.” GAs love it when they can show the aircraft dispatched a few minutes ahead of schedule as that’s a mark of efficiency and goals achieved.
As for the checked-in customer who failed to board on time, there’s other flights. And it’s totally unfair to delay a flight with dozens, perhaps hundreds of passengers on-board, to accommodate a passenger who was unable to get himself to the gate on-time..DL does not control the clock. There are sometimes extenuating circumstances where decisions are made by DL to delay an otherwise on-time flight in extraordinary circumstances, but that’s atypical and a separate topic.
For any customer out there who was denied boarding because they were late to gate, we know that can be a very aggravating situation. GAs dread that as much, if not more, than you do as we must deal with an irate customer.
Finally, I have tried to list many of the factors which go into dispatching a flight at DL. But in addition to what I listed, there are other considerations that can delay a flight which we handle on a semi-regular basis. And I did not mention security steps for obvious reasons.
DL staff from the technical operations folks who ready an aircraft before you even see it, to the meteorologists who work with the flight planners, to the flight deck crew who review expected enroute weather as well as log books and performing a visual inspection of the plane, to the ticket counter agents who check-in passengers and bags, to ramp agents who systematically.load the cargo, bags and mail, to the flight attendants that ensure each flight has a complete.complement of operational safety equipment to the solitary GA who oversees customer service and boarding in addition to being the point person whenever there’s an irregular.operation — all of those professionals do their job day in and day out with one principle that overrides all others and never wavers — there’s nothing more important than the safety of our passengers, crew and aircraft. Ever.
Nonsense. Sorry to say it.
Flights only leave early if all passengers have boarded. You will never see a flight depart early without all passengers onboard.
Airlines don’t care and can do what they want with us. We are just ‘paying cattle’ to them.
Delta is generally known for pressuring passengers to board early to facilitate an early departure. At airports like ICN (Incheon) and HND (Haneda), even though the official boarding cutoff is typically T-15 minutes, staffs at the check-in counter often write on the boarding pass that boarding closes 35 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Starting 40 minutes before departure, gate agents begin to insist that passengers board as quickly as possible. However, most airports have limited departure slots, and pushback clearance cannot be requested until 5 or 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Among pilots, requesting pushback clearance 15 or 20 minutes ahead is often considered disruptive to other flights’ on-time departures and contrary to industry norms.
Due to Delta’s early departure practices, airports with restricted departure slots can experience congestion on taxiways and runways, leading to delays at the destination even if the aircraft arrives early, as the gate might not be ready.
The true purpose of early departures is to lower the cost index and reduce fuel consumption. It is not about benefiting passengers but rather about reducing Delta’s operating costs. Additionally, Delta is known for imposing early boarding and early departure practices on other SkyTeam members. For example, Virgin Atlantic originally began boarding 40 minutes before departure but changed to 55 minutes due to Delta’s request. Korean Air also changed its boarding time from 30 minutes to 40 minutes before departure, although it originally required the same T-55 as Delta for its international flights. Korean Air’s A380, for instance, could manage boarding 30 minutes before departure, closing the door 10 minutes prior, and still depart on time without issues over the past 10 years. Delta’s interference and overreach with other SkyTeam member airlines seems excessive. Such behavior is rarely seen in either the Oneworld or Star Alliance.
I’m not so sure that airlines leave early ONLY if all ticketed and checked in passengers are on board. We were traveling from Boston to Rio, connecting through Houston. The Boston – Houston leg was delayed, so once we got to Houston, we ran to our next gate. And even with 12 minutes to spare before the departure time, there was no longer any agent at the gate which was also closed. But we could see the plane still at the gate! So my husband went to the gate next to ours, told the agent there he was Global Services and could not understand why our gate was closed early. Well upon hearing Global Services, she ran over to our gate, down the jet way and had the plane re-open their doors. Meanwhile, a line of other passengers from our delayed flight was forming, at least seven or so, who were supposed to be on this flight as well.
Long story short, they closed the gate early despite not all passengers on board and connecting passengers only minutes away. Thankfully they reopened the gate and the door.
By the way, my husband was not Global Services…Oops. But it helped us and several other passengers.
The ‘foremost expert in the field of miles, points and frequent business travel’ continues the descent into clickbait posts based on random un-social media posts. Keep descending Gary.
One click away from unsubscribing. The signal to noise (useful to junk/outright misinformation) ratio is getting way bad, and the AI generated clickbait titles aren’t helping.
This happened to me once on a Delta MSP-JFK-CDG flight.
MSP to JFK was 1 hr 30 delayed due to JFK congestion.
JFK to CDG left the gate 10 minutes early. There were at least 30 other people that were in the flight with me.
The app just automatically rebooked us for the next day. But the plane was literally at the gate
May have been due to weather?
Interestingly it all worked out for me because I was rebooked into J the next day’s flight and went to a hotel.
The departing flight sat at Tarmac for 1-2 hours and then was cancelled
So maybe they were trying to beat the weather?
But there were a ton of us who were at the gate “on time” who misconnected.
All of the other times I’ve seen this everyone is on board.
So, if a flight is allowed to depart early only when all passengers are boarded, then why bother change the status on the screen to “early”? How does this information benefit the passengers?
But I agree with Gary that I hate it too when the airline keeps changing flight time from delay back to on-time.
They should only leave “early” if everyone who booked on the flight has checked in.
I have little sympathy for people who show up in the gate area at departure time, and if its less than 10 minutes prior to departure time, they deserve to have their seats go to standbys who cannot be deplaned.
My lady friend missed a delta to delta connection at SLC because the second leg left early. Mind you this was a delta.com generated two segment trip. When she was at the airport she had two options:
Spend the night at her expense and catch a flight the next morning, or fly to an airport over a hundred miles from her original destination and have me pick her up at midnight. So I get to drive there and back to pick her up. Delta would not budge on any compensation until I harassed them into a measly $50 flight credit. Total BS!
The flight will only leave early if all checked-in passengers are onboard.
Either the author did not know this, in which case he could have done his research better; or he did know this and published the article anyway just to get people fired up (in which case he succeeded!).
Is there a way I can choose which authors show up in my Google News feed?
Thank you JB! I am a retired pilot instructor for a major airline. You hit the nail square on the head. Thank you for that lengthy explanation. I know exactly what you wrote and know exactly where you are coming from. The trolls that “poo poo” your comments have NO CLUE…NONE. Numerous times I have stepped in to help a haggard gate agent because I worked in RES before someone found out that I am a pilot. Dealing with irate passengers who, though NO FAULT of the airline, take out their frustrations on the RES agent on the phone. Gate agents have to deal with these issues face to face. For a fact…Delta trains the agents, supervisors and “Red Coats” very well. The customer, while not always right, is always the customer. They can very easily go somewhere else. When one reads about irate passengers throwing computers at the gate agent or the ticket counter agent, etc. it doesn’t happen “that often” at Delta as the agents try to deescalate the problem first. The airlines cannot control the weather, ATC or actual airport operations. Safety is the number one priority…PERIOD. As stated, every delay has a cascading effect for the whole day. I have NO sympathy for passengers who are late because of their own reasons. Look at the cruise line industry. They will leave your butt behind if you’re late because of a passenger booked excursion! I have seen gate agents page missing and confirmed passengers numerous times. “Last call for passenger XXX on Delta 1234 at gate YYY. Please report to gate YYY immediately or your seat will be forfeited.” Then, and only then, will standby passengers be cleared. Then, and only then, will the gate agent “close out” the flight as stated above. Once that is completed…the tardy passenger is gonna have to get a plan B. Well done JB. You and your colleagues are the backbone of good service.
U.S. carriers seem to hate to be in business, and do things to spite their paying customers. I think they should all get out of the business and the government should permit Asian and European carriers to work in the states. They aren’t perfect, but they seem able and willing to perform their jobs a lot better than the big names here. Just add airlines to the list of things the U.S. just can’t do anymore, along with cars, electronics and manufacturing.
Last year we had a United connection in Denver — SFO-DEN, DEN-LHR — and the flight out of San Francisco was delayed, principally because United got the weight and balance info wrong and we had to delay departure until they got it right. The United FA asked how many had connections (about half the passengers raised hands) and then said they had called ahead and all of our connecting flights would be held. We ran to the gate in DEN arriving exactly at the moment of scheduled departure only to be told the plan in fact had departed five minutes EARLY. I don’t know who got our POLARIS BUSINESS CLASS seats, but it sure wasn’t us. United was very apologetic and put us up at the nicer Denver airport hotel (but failed to book us a late check-out) where we spent a thoroughly boring wasted day until the flight out to London the next night. Cost us a lost prepaid hotel day and a full day of our holiday.
The best airline I ever flew in the United States of America was Virgin America.
Check in, waiting area and service on the flight 10 plus. The American flyer is being cheated
with inferior service. I have no sympathy for the big three domestic carriers.
Re late departures, I have been told to be at the gate at the original boarding time even when the flight was delayed 4 hours.
I’m not a fan of people who wait until the last minute to board. If you can’t be at the gate 15 minutes before departure (many carriers ask for more), you have already missed your flight. You do not have the right to hold up everyone else and cause a delay. The air system in the U.S. is such that to be on time you have to leave early. A major consideration is the ramp; too many times, there has been nobody available to push back. Why can’t they be in place 5 minutes before departure? I’m tired of delays and am glad DL tries to leave a few minutes early.