A319
Workload; Training / Qualification; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure; Staffing
Flight departed with incorrect final weights. The OPS agent didn't know how to correctly input the bag counts into the system and then finalize the flight. They had put 45 bags in pit 2 and finalized. This caused a bag deviation. They closed out with 128 bags but only scanned 83. I called them and invalidated their weights but the Captain took off right as this happened. They had finalized with 45 bags in pit 2 but they had zero bags in pit 2. This was a 1350 LBS weight difference.
We received a flow release time from ATC that was 10 minutes from our scheduled push time. At push we had not received the weights so I sent an ACARS because I wanted to make sure we had the weights to make our slot time. I received the response that weights were not available because the ramp had not completed the loading document. We continued to taxi to the active runway where we held for 10 minutes waiting for weights and missing our slot time. I called station Ops and they said they were talking to Load Planning about the weights. We waited another five minutes and received a Dispatch ACARS message stating our ZFW had gone up 4000 pounds with a new Burn and Fuel at Touchdown number. We acknowledged the increase and accepted the numbers. The Weight Manifest printed and it showed our weight below the weight I had used to calculate performance numbers. We took off but after departure received another Weight Manifest with an even lower gross weight; in fact the numbers were closer to the planned weights on the SABRE flight plan. The dispatcher was concerned about the update after departure and has filed a report because the station failed to properly calculate or know what the real aircraft weight was and he felt there was a lack of communication between the Load Planner and him. I agree the station; which is now run by a contractor; does not know what they are doing. While the total numbers we were working with resulted in minimal changes in the CG; there is a huge potential for a very serious error to occur. This has a huge implication throughout our system were our carrier's management has decide to outsource station operations and will be an even bigger problem as [air carrier] picks up flying that was handled by the express carriers; especially in smaller stations.
A Pilot and Ramp Agent reported that their company is outsourcing station staffing which resulted in this flight departing with a 1;350 pound weight and balance error. The replacement personnel do not know how to operate the weight and balance data entry system.