Thanks for the link to the ruling. I now have some reading matter for my next couple of flights to take closer look.

I forgot to answer your question about gate utilization as compared to 50% utility for long-shore docks. The answer essentially is yes, there is a “sweet spot” with gates where having too few will cost a lot in delays and disruptions. Equally, having too many will cost just as much in wasted expense.

Airlines plan the number of gates based on the high-water mark for traffic during any given day which, typically is early to mid-afternoon. That’s when the west coast flights hit Dallas, Chicago and other mid-west connecting points to east coast destinations. Absolutely every usable aircraft in the fleet is in the air and heading somewhere so they need room.

If for any reason there is a disruption and suddenly there are more planes coming than can be physically accommodated there are a ton of options open to the airline depending on the city (hub or outpost) and weather. From the farthest point out they can..

a) “Gate Hold” the flight at the departure city.
b) Put the less critical flights in to a holding pattern (plenty of fuel, no medical emergencies or large group connections)
c) Divert the marginal flights (running on empty)
d) Land the critical flights if possible (already on final, tight/large connections, medical or mechanical issues)
e) “Borrow” a gate from another airline (usually the outpost cities) long enough to work the flight and get it out of the way.

Each flight, date, airport and weather scenario is different, as you can imagine but the long and short is, each airline plans enough gates for a normal operation. They wish they had more during a bad-hair day but they’d end up owning resources than they typically need all across the country.

Kinda like snow-removal equipment in Phoenix. Who’s gonna spend all that money for something they might use once in ten years?

Stupid question, but what about the guy who thinks enough is enough and would rather wait for the next flight? Some cities are served as frequently as every hour. (I know that’s actually quite rare… one statistic that would be interesting would be to look at the frequencies between cities to see if a mean (average) wait time until next flight could be established. When I worked for UAX, a vast majority of our cities were served 4-5x per day… usually 4 hours between flights)

If there’s a long delay, there’s a good chance that the weather is bad and flights are canceling. (Not always, I know, but there is a good chance.) So sure, there might be someone who can wait until the next flight and get on but the chances of everyone else on the plane having that same suck is slim. Why not just drop him off at the gate and then go back out? Once you get back to the gate, crews may go illegal and then everyone may be screwed if the weather is bad.