[Mifnet 🛰 75495] Re: FW: Cliff Argue gate question

[Jack Keady via Mifnet]

 Mike - I'm focusing on your example of an inbound seeing an empty gate but 
being unable to reach it due to five outbound pushes. And we know this happens 
all the time.
What would be a solution to this?
One thing would be to regulate airlines as to minimizing these situations. Have 
them report instances of waiting for a gate inbound  or outbound congestion due 
to "company" traffic, not ATC
Another way would be for the ATC to take charge. Have them track every idle 
minute an aircraft is waiting while ATC could clear them to either threshold or 
gate
Finally, this whole issue could be turned over to AI. A company i am hoping to 
get funding for would review an airports schedule every morning and measure the 
million or more eventualities and then issue an entire schematic for the whole 
day.
This new company for which I am launching and seeking funding for will be named 
Future Uniform Cohesive Knowledge Utilizing Planning. Please do not try and 
create an acronym.

j keady - founder and nutjob



    On Sunday, February 22, 2026 at 12:48:36 PM PST, ATHGroup--- via Mifnet 
<mifnet@lists.mifnet.com> wrote:   

 
Jack,

  

Having flown into and out of ORD over and over again, most of the gate holds 
are driven by the gross inefficient use of the available gates and much less so 
by actual gate availability or ATC actions.

  

For example, why fly fast enroute if your gate is not available? Yet airlines 
do this all the time. Not only does this waste fuel enroute, but it also 
congests the terminal airspace, delays other aircraft increases noise, takes up 
a valuable landing slot which should be used by a late aircraft, congests the 
ramp, and - as proven by ATH Group - leads to increased taxi times while early 
flights wait for their gate.

  

Further, the airline has ramp workers, fuelers, and other secondary processes 
“standing by,” wasting time, and costing money. One action produces lower 
quality with numerous highly variant and costly effects. 

  

Yet airlines do nothing.

  

Nothing academic here - just well-understood supply chain and defect prevention 
tools from a system perspective. 

  

Although not a common occurrence, the example below happens over and over again 
on a much smaller scale. Gate availability problems are easily predictable 
hours prior to landing, yet the airline’s only response is to change gates. In 
fact, I had one gate management team tell me that they were so proud that they 
were able to do 1,000 gate changes in one day. Can you say Defect Correction?

  

On my flight from Portland, OR (PDX) to Chicago (ORD). That day, the tailwinds 
were in excess of 180 knots, which would and my flight into ORD 30 to 40 
minutes early. 

  

Of course, the PDX agents wanted to shut the door 10 minutes early and “push” 
the aircraft to ORD, since everyone was on board the aircraft (local goal of 
“shutting the door” early to meet an “on time departure” or D0), which I 
prevented, and we left on time. 

  

Next, I taxied very slowly, and cruised at a low speed for better fuel mileage, 
to the point ATC asked why I was flying so slowly. Apparently, the controller 
had never had an A320 cruising at .715 Mach. When I arrived at ORD, I landed 16 
minutes prior to schedule, instead of 30 to 40 minutes like all the other 
arriving aircraft which were “pushed” off their departure gates to meet D0 and 
wasted fuel going normal speed. 

  

 Of course, when so many aircraft land 30 to 40 minutes early at a hub airport, 
the gates are still full from the previous arrival bank. This forces ATC to 
temporarily park and manage aircraft everywhere and anywhere they can, to the 
point that - as I exited the runway - I couldn't talk with ATC as they were 
completely overloaded with D0 “pushed” aircraft parked everywhere waiting for 
their gate. After a few minutes, I was able to break in on the radio, and 
received clearance to my gate, which was open. As I entered the alley, yes, my 
gate was open, but it was blocked by five other aircraft that had just left 
their gates, which were awaiting taxi clearance to depart. 

  

The end result was that ORD devolved into a classic gridlock situation between 
the departures and D0 forced early arrivals, as the ATC system and airport were 
completely overwhelmed. I sat for 20 minutes looking at my empty gate 200 yards 
ahead but couldn't get to it. Of course, like everyone else who landed 30 to 40 
minutes early, I was late to the gate (20 minutes), even though I landed 16 
minutes early. 

  

Could ATC and the airport have handled this better? Of course! But the real 
solution was for the airlines to manage their departures by “pulling” the right 
aircraft from their departure gates to not overload the ORD ATC system or the 
airport. Clearly, if a simple line pilot recognized the problem hours prior 
(accurate ETA information hours in advance), an airline should have done the 
same, and prevented the problem from developing in the first place (Defect 
Prevention, ala W. Edwards Deming).

  

Given the facts, one would think airlines would jump at the chance to 
internally implement an FAA proven, independently validated, inexpensive 
solution that, within months, can improve on time performance, product quality, 
profits, and ATC - while cutting costs, fuel, CO2, noise, and daily defects, 
all with a return on investment measured in months, if not weeks.

  

Michael

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

R. Michael Baiada

cell - (303) 521-6047

rmbai...@greenlandings.net

  

From: Jack Keady via Mifnet <mifnet@lists.mifnet.com> 
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2026 11:44
To: David Wardell via Mifnet <mifnet@lists.mifnet.com>
Cc: Jack Keady <jjke...@aol.com>
Subject: [Mifnet 🛰 75489] Cliff Argue gate question

  

Cliff - re ORD article below, it would seem to make sense if every major 
airline was mandated to keep and empty gate available in order to eliminate a 
"wait for gate" queue. Does this make much sense and what is the legality?

  

The headline debate is the escalating American Airlines–United Airlines (AA-UA) 
one-upmanship at Chicago O’Hare (ORD), with the episode calling out a summer 
schedule in which AA is targeting ~550 daily departures while UA is pushing 
750+.







Vinay frames the structural reality: UA has held a long-running gate-space 
advantage at ORD—roughly 50% more raw gate space—and post-pandemic momentum has 
shifted local share in UA’s favor.

The key nuance: ORD today is not the ORD of the early 2000s. Airfield capacity 
is stronger after runway reconfiguration, but the “summer-from-hell” risk has 
evolved. The constraint is less about takeoff/landing throughput and more about 
gates—think aircraft sitting and waiting for a spot to park.

Vinay also floats a top-line implication: if the capacity surge sticks, ORD 
could push past its 2019 peak (noted at just over 84 million passengers) and 
potentially approach90 million, tightening the race for “busiest” bragging 
rights.

Where Southwest Fits

The conversation adds a third angle: Southwest Airlines’ (WN) dual-airport 
presence (MDW + growing at ORD) and early interline/codeshare dynamics could 
subtly reshape flows as legacy carriers flood markets with aggressive pricing. 
The bigger takeaway: even marginal network adjustments by WN can matter when 
two network carriers are chasing frequency leadership in the same metro.

  
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