velosnow

Out of curiosity I've heard a lot of UAL aircraft in DEN talking to ramp about APU use when coming into the ramp. It seems ramp/ops dictates whether or not the APU should be used. Has that decision been taken out of your hands? I heard a guy being a bit unprofessional the other day on the radio about not being plugged in but also wouldn't fire up the APU? Was that him being meek or making a point perhaps?

Thought that particular case was odd, as a UAX guy we run our APU as needed without external folks telling us how to keep our pax comfy.

CousinEddie

Th DEN guys can chime in with the latest, but certain gates have been using a procedure to get ground power plugged in very quickly upon arrival so that the APU doesn't need to be started as it normally is. The ramp controller may have been talking to an aircraft inbound to one of those gates. And yes, we can start the APU whenever we feel the need.

As a side note, 9 years of riding RJ jumpseats made it obvious to me that none of the UAX carriers cared much about fuel burn when UAL was buying the fuel. Hopefully that is changing.

As far as your opinion of the guy being unprofessional? Perhaps you wouldn't be frustrated with the predictable results of this while others would:

United Has an Operational Problem in Denver | The Cranky Flier

velosnow

Good to hear about still having control of the APU (would have been astounding otherwise), it does seems like it's being very micromanaged. On the UAX side we try (and hope) to be plugged in with both power and air but it's a rare thing at certain stations unfortunately. Those RJs get hot quick in the summer.

We do care about fuel burn as much as the next guy (for me it's my tree huggin' reasons to be honest) but not to the detriment of the pax. Some guys will be quick to shut down the APU in the 200 for instance in the summer for takeoff when they are still 5 or 6 in line for takeoff. That ain't right or good for business. Now the company is trying to tell us to arrive at exactly A14 on a 30 minute turn to save fuel (or burn block) and make everyone miss their connections. Ummm...no.

As to your last point, I'm more than frustrated. DEN based and I've run out of excuses to my passengers. Things are finally getting better it seems but only until the next snow storm I reckon.

Captain Bligh

FWIW

U.S. forecast: Expect oil to stay cheap for awhile | The Columbian


Being that our industry is so prone to demonstrating cycles, if the above proves to be true, I suspect that it wont take very long, maybe mid-summer, until the Denver ramp and all of the other APU manament task force employees are subject to realistic measures of the value they contribute, like anyone in any business. Am I saying we shouldn't bother to save fuel from the cockpit? Absolutely not. The cost of savings, compared to what will be save however, will require a ton more training and management than we have ever seen at either legacy before. I welcome the day, but it means our managers need to commit to a big bill for the wages of these folks and an even longer boring time of actually reeducating and ultimately managing the ground staff. At some point the APU burn is cheaper than changing the norm at so many of our stations.

I'm betting (read buying DAL stock) that the first 2 quarters of 2015 will be a grand slam for our industry's profits no matter what management does. I'll also take a stab and say that APUs will still run all night while Mx has the airplane at the hangar. Lastly, if fuel prices stay low, many if not all of those folks you see scurrying about with clipboards and stop watches and a yellow vest that says "APU Team" will be back out on the ramp throwing bags by Presidents Day weekend.