[Joeaksa]

Kevin,

The airlines do not want to do this. They want airplanes in the air, flying.

Commercial flight crews have a duty time (total on duty time including flying) of 14 hours, and a flight time (actually in the air) of 10 hours. No execptions. Once either of these limits have been reached they have to stop whatever they are doing and get 10 hours rest, then they get to start all over again.

When a plane full of pax AND crew sits anywhere for close to 9 hour unless they are flying a trip less than 1 hour, there is no way that they can legally do the trip. They not only did not fly the flight and thus making the company money, they blocked an airplane from flying and kept it out of service while it could have been working.

With the cost of fuel the last 3 years airlines have been cutting expenses to the bone so there are few extra crews or planes to cover the load when a mess like this happens.