Situational Awareness; Workload
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors
Dispatcher came in for scheduled shift to a desk that is normally a turnover desk for the midnight dispatcher. The dispatcher who worked the overnight shift was sent home 1 hour early due to rest requirements so they could work their assigned shift on the same day starting at XA45. A relief dispatcher was watching over the desk but was never given a proper pass-down - they were just informed by the overnight dispatcher that 'everything looked good'.Once the assigned dispatcher signed into the dispatch monitor; they noticed an abnormally high number for flights allocated for the desk for that day. The dispatcher realized that he had numerous flights in the air; as well as; some waiting for deicing procedures in hubs and outstation locations. Sabre Plot was updated with estimated off time information for these flight that were in the air or on the taxiways. Dispatcher allocation for flights on that specific desk showed unrealistic number of flights. Total amount of flights allocated for this desk was 83. 24 flights were in the air at the time the scheduled dispatcher was signing into the computer system.Operational control was reestablished / maintained once dispatcher was fully signed in to the computer systems and briefed on the day's weather events. Flights waiting for fuel load changes were done after dispatcher familiarization was complete. Daily flight allocation should be completed by someone who has worked the overnight shift before; and not just once in their time while working at this company. Workload on 80 plus flights is extremely tough to manage. Positive operational control should have been maintained / not compromised by not sending the overnight dispatcher home early to be legal for next scheduled shift.
Dispatcher reports being assigned a desk that is being 'watched over' by another Dispatcher that has not received a proper turnover; due to the originally assigned Dispatcher being sent home early to be legal for his next shift. Upon signing in it is noticed that the desk is monitoring over 80 flights; both in the air and on the ground. Operational control was reestablished.