Narrative:

Flight overbooked with dozens of standby passengers hoping to get on. Plane arrived at gate @XA54Z; scheduled to push @XB47Z. Plane pushed @XB51Z; late due to passengers still boarding and cargo doors still open. Given permission to start left engine only during push back. After we stopped; first officer noticed that a baggage cart had followed us out into the alley with a dozen bags and a stroller on board the cart. I asked the pushback crewman about the bags; and he informed me that he had been told to push the aircraft and finish loading the remainder of the bags in the alley by his ramp foreman. The foreman informed him that 'this way; customer service would be given the delay and not the ramp'. We had now stopped the push in the alley. There is construction blocking the alley; forcing everyone to utilize our side of the alley. While we were loading bags in the aft; starboard pit; 2 regional jets squeezed past us; on our right; to get to their respective gates. During this fiasco; we were blocking the alley for an extra 10 minutes; blocking half a dozen aircraft from either taxiing for departure or from getting to their gates. This is a safety issue!!! This airline/management is so obsessed/focused with tunnel vision on on-time-departures and then charging someone with the delay that our personnel are just 'covering-their-six' and in doing so; they are putting people at risk! This is what it has come down to; no one is looking at the big picture; safety first! And the real kicker is that our flight plan had us 15 minutes under schedule! We blocked in 3 minutes behind schedule. We need to stop pointing fingers and handing out blame. We need to go back to the team delay concept of the mid-1990's

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757 Captain is informed during pushback that more bags will be loaded in the alley after #1 engine start; so that passenger service will take the delay. Loading takes 10 minutes and prevents many aircraft from getting to or from their gates.

Narrative: Flight overbooked with dozens of standby passengers hoping to get on. Plane arrived at gate @XA54Z; scheduled to push @XB47Z. Plane pushed @XB51Z; late due to passengers still boarding and cargo doors still open. Given permission to start left engine only during push back. After we stopped; First Officer noticed that a baggage cart had followed us out into the alley with a dozen bags and a stroller on board the cart. I asked the pushback crewman about the bags; and he informed me that he had been told to push the aircraft and finish loading the remainder of the bags in the alley by his ramp foreman. The foreman informed him that 'this way; Customer Service would be GIVEN THE DELAY and not the ramp'. We had now stopped the push in the alley. There is construction blocking the alley; forcing everyone to utilize our side of the alley. While we were loading bags in the aft; starboard pit; 2 Regional Jets squeezed past us; on our right; to get to their respective gates. During this fiasco; we were blocking the alley for an extra 10 minutes; blocking half a dozen aircraft from either taxiing for departure or from getting to their gates. THIS IS A SAFETY ISSUE!!! This airline/management is so obsessed/focused with tunnel vision on on-time-departures and then charging someone with the delay that our personnel are just 'covering-their-six' and in doing so; they are PUTTING PEOPLE AT RISK! This is what it has come down to; no one is looking at the Big Picture; Safety First! And the real kicker is that our flight plan had us 15 minutes UNDER SCHEDULE! We blocked in 3 minutes behind schedule. We need to stop pointing fingers and handing out blame. We need to go back to the Team Delay concept of the mid-1990's

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.