On the AUS ramp deal with Virgin… I may be biased but SWA had no need to yield there. The ramp is wide enough Virgin has room and every right to go around them. The SWA tug driver purposely stopped short enough to allow Virgin to pass around them. It happens daily and you just taxi around the guy. That’s just how it works
I don’t think AUS quite needs a ramp control yet, but that’s just me. That big wide ramp has lots of room. Nashville could use one though, it’s tight and congested there.
On the near miss today… holy shit. That was bad. FedEx pilots saved lives. Im guessing the SWA was a Max and didn’t have the full warm up time yet. Another reason to not to taxi out single engine if so. Could’ve been something else though. It’ can take 30 seconds or so to acknowledge your takeoff clearance, make the turn, and spool up to roll, but 50 seconds is a bit much with a guy 3 miles out. I don’t know how low the vis was but that’s no time to have tight spacing.