Narrative:

On this day with a flight load of up to and over 60 flight releases to be built due to a sick call; the operation became heavily delayed. With thunderstorms over the east coast this creates many challenges for each dispatcher on shift. With checking routing; flight following; and all the many aspects of dispatching a flight; it makes it easier to make mistakes. There is no reason we should be working up 60 plus flights in an operation like this one. There are many east coast flights; many transcontinental; and many international flights which all require much attention to planning and flight following. Having to field calls; and attempt to plan flights is a difficult task when dealing with so many flights; thus creating a safety hazard. There needs to be acknowledgment that there are too many flights on a normal day of operations; much less on a day we are down a dispatcher. This airline has grown immensely over the years; which is typically the goal of an airline. There needs to be more people hired to bring us up to a better staffing amount. There should be at least 4 new hires in the next class to be able to distribute a more balanced and more manageable amount of flights. Only hiring enough to bring us back to fully staffed just puts us where we started a year ago when we started losing dispatchers. It doesn't help the day to day schedule of flight distribution. The 2 missing relief lines just will help alleviate so many junior assignments.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier Dispatcher reported excessive workload related to insufficient staffing.

Narrative: On this day with a flight load of up to and over 60 flight releases to be built due to a sick call; the operation became heavily delayed. With thunderstorms over the East Coast this creates many challenges for each dispatcher on shift. With checking routing; flight following; and all the many aspects of dispatching a flight; it makes it easier to make mistakes. There is no reason we should be working up 60 PLUS flights in an operation like this one. There are many East Coast flights; many transcontinental; and many international flights which all require much attention to planning and flight following. Having to field calls; and attempt to plan flights is a difficult task when dealing with so many flights; thus creating a safety hazard. There NEEDS to be acknowledgment that there are too many flights on a normal day of operations; much less on a day we are down a dispatcher. This airline has grown immensely over the years; which is typically the goal of an airline. There needs to be more people hired to bring us up to a better staffing amount. There should be AT LEAST 4 new hires in the next class to be able to distribute a more balanced and more manageable amount of flights. Only hiring enough to bring us back to fully staffed just puts us where we started a year ago when we started losing dispatchers. It doesn't help the day to day schedule of flight distribution. The 2 missing relief lines just will help alleviate so many junior assignments.

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.