Narrative:

After I spoke with dispatch about my flight to den and upon arriving at the gate; I was informed by all of the gate agents that our flight was weight restricted and they were involuntarily removing 15-20 passengers. I asked who told them we were weight restricted and they told me 'it was load planning'. I explained to them that the den weather was not forecasting or currently experiencing icing conditions; which I and dispatch discussed; so therefore we were not in fact weight restricted. I called dispatch and explained the situation and she agreed with me that weather was not an issue in den. Like myself; the dispatcher was not aware of any restriction imposed by load planning. Dispatch communicated to load planning that there was no reason for the flight to be weight restricted so the restriction was lifted and all booked passengers were allowed to board. Flight was uneventful in VMC conditions. An FAA inspector occupied the jumpseat on this flight and he witnessed this entire episode. My concern is that this inspector may have the idea that I forced load planning and dispatch to lift a required weight restriction; which is not the case. Apparently; load planning is taking it upon themselves to weight restrict all 737-900 flights into den during the colder months without notifying dispatch or the captains of those flights. This policy is creating unwarranted problems and delays for the den flights.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-900 Flight Crew reported that load planning was routinely applying weight restrictions to 900 series aircraft destined for high altitude airports; without consideration of actual weather icing conditions at the destination. Should icing conditions exist; climb capability for single engine operations would be a consideration.

Narrative: After I spoke with Dispatch about my flight to DEN and upon arriving at the gate; I was informed by all of the gate agents that our flight was weight restricted and they were involuntarily removing 15-20 passengers. I asked who told them we were weight restricted and they told me 'it was Load Planning'. I explained to them that the DEN weather was not forecasting or currently experiencing icing conditions; which I and Dispatch discussed; so therefore we were not in fact weight restricted. I called Dispatch and explained the situation and she agreed with me that weather was not an issue in DEN. Like myself; the dispatcher was not aware of any restriction imposed by Load Planning. Dispatch communicated to Load Planning that there was no reason for the flight to be weight restricted so the restriction was lifted and all booked passengers were allowed to board. Flight was uneventful in VMC conditions. An FAA inspector occupied the jumpseat on this flight and he witnessed this entire episode. My concern is that this inspector may have the idea that I forced Load Planning and Dispatch to lift a required weight restriction; which is not the case. Apparently; Load Planning is taking it upon themselves to weight restrict all 737-900 flights into DEN during the colder months without notifying Dispatch or the Captains of those flights. This policy is creating unwarranted problems and delays for the DEN flights.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.