Narrative:

This flight was delayed from the onset 1 & 1/2 hours because ZZZ was closed due to an ice storm. At the rescheduled time I proceeded to the plane to complete preflight duties. I received a text from the captain that he had talked to dispatch and he determined the flight was not safe to operate until a braking action report could be obtained from the airport. The airport had no means to treat their runways based the infrequent occurrence of snow or icing conditions. The dispatcher agreed and the flight was further delayed another hour. The captain asked me to talk to the gate agents and stop the boarding. They stopped the boarding and decided to deplane the passengers given the unknown length of the delay. I proceeded to ops where the captain and I discussed the severity of the icing at the ZZZ airport. The airport manager reported it as the worst ice storm in his 25 years. The ground vehicles were having trouble maneuvering anywhere on the airport. After the hour delay the captain spoke with the dispatcher and said he still believed it was unsafe to operate the flight. The dispatcher said he wanted us to trust that when the sun came out it would melt the ice. The captain asked the conditions in ZZZ1 which the dispatcher reported as one runway open that had been treated with deicing fluid and salt and sand. All other runways were braking action nil. The captain also asked if any part 121 operation had occurred or was enroute to ZZZ and the dispatcher said no. Again the captain briefed the dispatcher; [and chief pilots] that he believed it was unsafe to operate under the conditions. The [chief pilots] were both understanding and supportive of the captain's concerns and agreed with his decision to delay the flight. Twenty minutes later the flight was released; the passengers were boarded and everyone was waiting for us at the gate. The captain called the dispatcher again who said a 737 was enroute and would be able to give us a braking action report prior to our arrival. The dispatcher offered ZZZ2 as an alternate (which had the same poor weather conditions and lack of dining equipment). We finally agreed that we would depart now with enough gas to divert to ZZZ1 and arrive there with 8K lbs of fuel since they were a single runway operation. We departed approximately 1 hour after the report the passengers had been boarded. This was the worst case of coordination from a dispatcher to station ops I have seen in my 20 years. In my opinion; the dispatcher was negligent trying to force this flight to operate under these extreme weather conditions and failing to acknowledge the captain's specific statement that he believed the current plan was unsafe. There was a total breakdown between dispatch and station ops resulting in our passengers being poorly treated (e;g; boarded for over an hour when the captain had no intention of operating the flight). The flight received a good braking action report from previous aircraft and landed safely. Had we left when the dispatcher wanted we would have been the test pilots seeing if we could stop on ZZZ's ice covered runway.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier First Officer reported poor communication between dispatch; the station management; and the flight crew on a go; no-go decision.

Narrative: This flight was delayed from the onset 1 & 1/2 hours because ZZZ was closed due to an ice storm. At the rescheduled time I proceeded to the plane to complete preflight duties. I received a text from the Captain that he had talked to dispatch and he determined the flight was not safe to operate until a braking action report could be obtained from the airport. The airport had no means to treat their runways based the infrequent occurrence of snow or icing conditions. The dispatcher agreed and the flight was further delayed another hour. The Captain asked me to talk to the gate agents and stop the boarding. They stopped the boarding and decided to deplane the passengers given the unknown length of the delay. I proceeded to Ops where the Captain and I discussed the severity of the icing at the ZZZ airport. The airport manager reported it as the worst ice storm in his 25 years. The ground vehicles were having trouble maneuvering anywhere on the airport. After the hour delay the Captain spoke with the dispatcher and said he still believed it was UNSAFE to operate the flight. The dispatcher said he wanted us to trust that when the sun came out it would melt the ice. The Captain asked the conditions in ZZZ1 which the dispatcher reported as one runway open that had been treated with deicing fluid and salt and sand. All other runways were braking action nil. The Captain also asked if any part 121 operation had occurred or was enroute to ZZZ and the dispatcher said no. Again the Captain briefed the dispatcher; [and Chief Pilots] that he believed it was UNSAFE to operate under the conditions. The [Chief Pilots] were both understanding and supportive of the Captain's concerns and agreed with his decision to delay the flight. Twenty minutes later the flight was released; the passengers were boarded and everyone was waiting for us at the gate. The Captain called the dispatcher again who said a 737 was enroute and would be able to give us a braking action report prior to our arrival. The dispatcher offered ZZZ2 as an alternate (which had the same poor weather conditions and lack of dining equipment). We finally agreed that we would depart now with enough gas to divert to ZZZ1 and arrive there with 8K lbs of fuel since they were a single runway operation. We departed approximately 1 hour after the report the passengers had been boarded. This was the worst case of coordination from a dispatcher to Station ops I have seen in my 20 years. In my opinion; the dispatcher was negligent trying to force this flight to operate under these extreme weather conditions and failing to acknowledge the Captain's specific statement that he believed the current plan was UNSAFE. There was a total breakdown between Dispatch and Station ops resulting in our passengers being poorly treated (e;g; boarded for over an hour when the Captain had no intention of operating the flight). The flight received a good braking action report from previous aircraft and landed safely. Had we left when the dispatcher wanted we would have been the test pilots seeing if we could stop on ZZZ's ice covered runway.

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.