Commercial Fixed Wing
Dispatch Dispatcher
Fatigue; Time Pressure; Workload; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
General None Reported / Taken
Staffing; Weather
My dispatch desk today is home to most of the [regional] flights. As such I have the majority; if not all; of the ZZZ-ZZZ1 and ZZZ1-ZZZ routes. From the first moment I received my turnover and sat down I knew this was going to be a challenging day. My shift started [in the afternoon] so naturally all of the afternoon thunderstorms were in full swing. Today in particular the northeast was in a very dynamic weather pattern. There were thunderstorms forming in a line across PA; southern NY; CT; and MA with tops to 45;000 feet. After only an hour into my shift I realized that I definitely needed help; however; every time I pulled up the help message to fill it out; another phone call or issue occurred. By the time I looked at the clock again it was [night] and too late for help.First of all; a ZZZ-ZZZ1 flight did not want to fly through this maturing line of weather and I do not blame him. The normal ATC route goes through this weather so I created a southern route to avoid it. No southern routes were in the system so it took longer than normal to build a route; then I had to go through the ATC desk to get the route approved. Once it was approved (which took at least 20 minutes; with the flight at departure time) the Captain and I had to recalculate a new fuel load and make sure he had enough as well as the correct altitude; and we were still avoiding the weather. We worked it all out; and thinking everything was fine he called me back saying that ATC would now not let him leave on this route (even though it was approved). Ultimately after going back and forth; the only route available was the normal route through the weather. After 2.5 hours of sitting off the gate and going through these changing predicaments he went back to the gate just under the 3 hour limit. This was only one flight. Then almost immediately after that flight returned to the gate and was resolved. ZZZ1 stopped their departures. And ZZZ and ZZZ1 were both in and out of ground stops and programs it was all a blur. A mess of not having any routes available due to the thunderstorms with no update time; making it very difficult on how to advise my crews. On top of this I had two aircraft with restricted MELs and penalties that needed to be applied. Making sure one flight had enough MEL fuel for the APU burn during flight due to an IDG (Integrated Drive Generator) being inop; then another with two thrust reverser issues and having to apply multiple penalties. At the same time I had other ZZZ1-ZZZ flights dealing with this same weather and I was unable to give them as much attention. When Captains would call to see if their wheels up times had changed or if they are getting better or worse; I did not know because of the multitude of other things going on. Once one of many ZZZ-ZZZ1 flights did get airborne the thunderstorms started to cut off approaches to ZZZ1 and he was holding and was given a 40 minute update time. I sent him new numbers and he wanted to change his alternate back to ZZZ. I obliged and sent him all of the required information. Then about 15 minutes later he said he was diverting to ZZZ. At this I did not argue; or even try to convince him otherwise; or give any weather updates for ZZZ1. I did not have time and the fatigue was setting in from the constant flip flopping of programs and ground stops with ATC and the weather. Furthermore; when he did get land back to ZZZ it was technically an air interrupt. This caused even more confusion for ops; the gate; and Captain because of having to condition the time. In turn this added to the delay and subsequently led to the flight being canceled because the crew ran out of time. Anyway; all while this flight was holding for ZZZ1 and diverting back to ZZZ I had another inflight call from [another flight on a different route] concerning a sick passenger with flu-like symptoms requiring special attention when he landed in ZZZ2. While my ZZZ flight was diverting I was also coordinating with ZZZ2 ops and customer service for this passenger. Meanwhile these flights took my attention away from other flights on my desk going into ZZZ3; and to ZZZ4; and into ZZZ2. It was not fair to these flights; who deserve my attention just as much as the [regional] flights.I would love to send each of my flights play by play updates of what is going on with ground stops and programs and what the ATC desk sends to us and pass it along; but I just cannot with the magnitude of work. For example; maybe two weeks ago working this same desk in a similar situation I had 29 flights with EDCTs (Estimated Departure Clearance Times); which probably deserves its own report. But more than half of my flights were either in a program or a stop and had some sort of wheels up time. It was not even feasible to send that many ACARS messages. Not to mention most of those Captains calling for updates. Causes included: a high workload with numerous flights in the same region; in addition to ATC ground stops; programs; reroutes; departure/arrival closures. Revising reroutes and fuel burns; changing alternates due to marginal weather; return to gates; diversions; a passenger needing medical assistance; and putting in cancelations. The accumulation of all of these factors led to fatigue; increased stress; and not being able to have anything to eat until almost 6 hours into my shift (by which time the cafeteria had closed).Distribute the [regional] flights to other desks whenever there is any kind of program or stop at any time for ZZZ or ZZZ1. I would suggest only two [regional] aircraft per desk. Having all of these flights on one desk not only causes an increase in workload; but flight numbers then become confusing and you forget which flight has what going on; and who you were talking to about it.
Air carrier Dispatcher reported extreme workload due to weather causing major delays.