EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Dispatch Dispatcher
Training / Qualification; Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Workload
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
General None Reported / Taken
At 2 hours prior to scheduled departure time; I completed and filed a flight plan for the flight in question. Due to enroute weather; this flight was filed using a Dispatcher created route of: IAD..FLUKY..PAUKI..MOL.J22.... An hour prior to departure time; the Captain informed me that the aircraft was broken. The Coordinator arranged for an aircraft swap. The new aircraft would result in a delay of several hours. Once the swap was inputted into the Sabre System; I regenerated the flight plan; and created an amendment to the release. This flight was subsequently passed down to the late night Dispatcher. During the regeneration of the flight plan; the Dispatcher created route was lost; and replaced with the company default route. The original route was still on file with the FAA. It is not Dispatch policy to generate a new ATC strip for tail swaps. As a result of this; the crew was 'Cleared as Filed.' However; the route on the paperwork did not match the route as seen by ATC.This is an error with several causes: First of all; as a hub coordinator; my time on the dispatch desk is not sufficient to ensure I remain proficient in all the oddities of the flight planning system. This particular scenario is not covered by any manual; and it is up to the Dispatcher to remember that the system behaves as it does. Secondly; the Dispatch workload makes it almost impossible to remember what routes have been assigned to what flights. There are just too many releases per desk. Additionally; knowing this is a potential problem; the company should implement a procedure to prevent this issue. Either require the dispatcher to remove the strip and refile during a tail swap; or require the crew to request a full route clearance when a new release is generated.
Dispatcher reports assigning a weather avoidance route to one of his flights then having send a new release when an aircraft swap is required. The new release defaults to the standard company route but the weather avoidance route remains on file with ATC. The crew is cleared as filed which is not the route on the current release.