Widebody Transport
Dispatch Dispatcher
Dispatch Dispatch 9.8
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Environment - Non Weather Related; Company Policy; Staffing; Weather
I am submitting this report to respond to the situation that occurred on my position during the evening shift. This particular shift was some of the worst/busiest hours that I have spent in my dispatch career. This includes 1 year 8 months at one carrier and an additional 8 years prior at another carrier. The culmination of events can be attributed to multiple reasons; dispatch workload; weather and circumstance. Obviously there is nothing that can be done specifically about weather. Workload and circumstances however can be adjusted.The basic overview of the day is as follows. A cold front was moving through the northeast; bringing with it a line of convective activity through the entire area. Every airport was having issues. This was a very strong line of storms but was relatively fast moving and thin; meaning the tops were tall; but didn't stay in one location very long. My desk was taking this workload hard. When I arrived for my shift; I was briefed by the morning dispatcher with all of the needed information for the afternoon. As he left; I received the first of many phone calls to deal with the situation. This phone call rang prior to even being able to log into my computer. The phone call was about a reroute; not a big thing. The captain wanted a briefing and a discussion culminated with the need of pulling an ATC strip and re-filing. Once again; not a big deal; just time consuming. And; all of my quad mates were dealing with their own related issues; so I just dealt with it. Once this ended; I began the arduous process of logging into the many programs that we need to successfully dispatch. The programs we use are great; but having multiple passwords on multiple programs is very taxing and time consuming. If we had a single log in system; then logging in would not be so hard. It literally can take 20 minutes or more to totally get situated and ready. One is walking into a mess to begin with. But alas; this isn't a report about log ins; but it is a report about work load; and logging in is part of the work day; and could be streamed lined.This process of the initial phone call; then the process of the log in; and then other phone calls which subsequently came; along with the 100+ messages that were on my screen printer during the log in process; needless to say; I was swamped from the beginning. The only specific incident that I will bring up is Flight XXXX. They were in the dubious position of being on the arrival; with weather moving in from the west; while turnover was going on. During the turnover; I was aware and informed of this flight into ZZZ; but due to the drawn out nature of the previous events described above; it was more than a few minutes later that I was actually able to look; evaluate and respond to the ACARS that were sent; asking questions on a plan. I was able to respond to the captain; and the flight did arrive into ZZZ without incident; but after arrival the captain called me to voice her concern with the lag time in response. I explained the circumstances of the turnover and timing; and she was not blaming anyone; just concerned with the process of how much time could potentially be down during a turnover. I bring this event up so I don't have to write a second report due to the captain telling me she was writing her own report. I did communicate with her; but yes; the communication could have been better if I had not been inundated from the beginning with such a heavy workload. I will preface the rest of this by saying; yes I know that the sheer number of releases on this afternoon desk was not a daunting task. This report is not about my night release load; but it is about the amount aircraft that anyone has at any given time; and one's ability to properly give needed time to all aspects of flight; from release to block in. Yes; there was weather. Yes; it was bad timing. Yes it could have been worse; but that being said; it was hours upon hours of phone calls. I had multiple flights into stations with weather. I had multiple flights trying to avoid tarmac delays because of weather. I had multiple maintenance issues. I even had a jetbridge catch on fire. I cannot recall how many aircraft I had in the air at any given time. I can't recall the amount of aircraft that were on the ground at any given time. What I can recall is that it was literally 3 hours of solid issues; phone calls; ACARS etc. before I ever got to look at preparing my first release. A message was sent to receive help; but nothing ever came from that. As I said earlier; all of my quad mates helped as they could but had their own issues as well. I will say that I had multiple aircraft with tarmac delays over 2 hours; however managed to not exceed 3 in any case.I wanted to write this and say that operational control was never lost; but workload needs to be addressed. The sheer number of releases needs to be evaluated. This is a general statement; not specifically related to tonight's' events. Other things need to be taken into consideration with assigning flights to desks. One key idea is limiting the number of aircraft that one should have in the air at any given point. Having 20-25 aircraft in the air at one time; is not a safe operation; but one that has been witnessed more than occasionally.  I do not like it when weather affects a region and all of my flights are either coming or going from it. Today is a good example to this point. I had active flights in and out of airports affected by weather all at the same time. It was overwhelming at times; but I managed to do it. This time with no tarmac delays; no incidents and no real issues; but because there were none of these; doesn't mean there couldn't have been. If this were the case; then I would be writing this report for an entire different reason. This limiting of aircraft responsible for in a given time frame would definitely allow for better flight following. Once again; I was able to flight follow today; but I could have been a better flight follower. There are other things that add to the work load issue; like the longevity of the sign in. Not the turnover itself; but the complexity of getting ready for the day.In conclusion; I would like to say that I understand that being a dispatcher requires the talent of multitasking; I understand that there will be really easy days and really hard days. I also understand that the status quo isn't always the best way to do things. I am not looking to eliminate the hard days; but rather lessen them to allow the dispatcher to do his job in a safe and effective manner; ensuring operational control at all times. Dispatching is fluid. Delays occur and traffic builds up. I understand all of the rebuttals one could give me about how this is an OK status quo day. Reality states it is not. I can pop out releases all day; on a good day. Numbers of releases to write doesn't really matter if the process ends and 'send'. The problem is that by regulation; the dispatcher's responsibility does not end there. With the current status quo; myself; nor anyone else has the ability to do their required job very well.The communication event occurred due to a combination of weather in the area of their destination; high workload (flight following included) and timing of turnover versus arrival of aircraft into the airport. I do not feel that there was an error made on my part; the previous dispatchers or the Captain. It is how the time frame played out. Overall the reported event occurred due to high work volume; within small time frames with no external help.In the specific communication event; I would say a shorter log in process would have helped. I could have always been better at prioritizing; and could have managed things better; but that being said; within the circumstances of this particular time frame; there an extreme amount of flights I was dealing with for various things. In the overall event; I would say a redistribution of workload of workload to include more dispatchers and better city pair distribution. The company needs to figure out if they want to take the chance on future work load events or prepare for the future. This event did not even occur in 'thunderstorm season' yet. The weather situation will only get worse. The amount of dispatchers having issues with weather is only going to get worse. A comprehensive look at the overall plan of daily dispatch needs to be re-evaluated without so much concern with money; but rather quality of airline/dispatch performance.
Air carrier Dispatcher reported they could not respond to a flight crew in a timely manner due to weather and excessive workload.