B737-800
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance
Aircraft Equipment Problem Dissipated; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Human Factors
After diverting to ZZZ we arrived at ZZZ1 a few hours late. Upon arriving at the departure gate for our next leg we discovered the flight had already been boarded an hour or so early. The ground service bus was connected and the battery switch and emergency exit lights were off. We discovered there were two open write ups in the book which were a LAV water heater issue and a pack issue. We called maintenance to let them know about the write ups. A little bit later we were told the aircraft was being taken out of service. A replacement aircraft was eventually found. During preflight I called Dispatch to discuss ZZZ2 operations during late night tower closure procedures. About ten minutes later I received a call from Dispatch that the runway lights were NOTAM'ed out that night and we were not going to be able to go. He was; however; going to call ZZZ2 and ask if they could keep the lights on. The  Concourse Manager and the tower came up with a 'plan' to depart and if I couldn't get into ZZZ2; due to no runway lights; to divert to ZZZ3 and they would bus the pax to ZZZ2. This was not a plan I was in favor of to say the least. ZZZ2 equipment maintenance agreed to delay the runway light not/closure till after our arrival; which was approximately XA:30PST. About an hour from arrival we received a GPS 1 and 2 message with an accompanying TERR POS message which was the result of a [name] NOTAM regarding jamming. We discussed the situation of a late night RNAV arrival into mountainous terrain with a tower closure and no GPS and terrain warning. Just prior to descent the GPS returned. Reporter stated the cause of the late departure was maintenance deciding to take the aircraft out of service after it had been on the ground for three hours. Boarding a flight an hour before aircrew showing up and the ground service bus as the only power source. The emergency exit lights were not on as well as the battery. The decision by non pilots to fly to a 'special airport due to terrain' not knowing if the runway lights would be working only to divert to another airport. [name of area] jamming and the loss of GPS and terrain warnings.Operations management needs to change from reactive to proactive.
B737-800 Captain reported dispatch and maintenance mishandling of the flight Operations including the aircraft; destination issues and a viable backup plan.