Charter airlines and making up lost time
Discussion
I was watching the gf's flight to Larnaca last night on FlightRadar last night as they were delayed and as I was bored I started digging around as you do. Turns out their plane had just left for Syria as they were just checking in explaining the delay. As I looked into it a bit more it seemed to me to have been operating continuously for about 48 hours.
So how do they eventually get the plane back on schedule or is this why they're frequently late?
So how do they eventually get the plane back on schedule or is this why they're frequently late?
Flight times always have a fudge factor built in for short delays, but often if you have a problem, then you are carrying that delay all day. Few aircraft are truly operating 24/7 (except at very, very busy times) and so it generally sorts itself out.
However, everyone does their best to minimise problems, with crews often flying faster (if allowed by the company) taking more direct routings where possible and by doing their best to shorten turnarounds. It's a real team effort to try and get delays back and it really isn't easy. Once they go beyond a certain point though, all you are doing is trying to minimise the inconvenience, rather than fix it completely.
Often ops departments will be doing the one armed paperhangar trick of rescheduling crews and aircraft and even bringing in standby machines to sort really big issues out as the knock on effect of delays can be huge.
However, everyone does their best to minimise problems, with crews often flying faster (if allowed by the company) taking more direct routings where possible and by doing their best to shorten turnarounds. It's a real team effort to try and get delays back and it really isn't easy. Once they go beyond a certain point though, all you are doing is trying to minimise the inconvenience, rather than fix it completely.
Often ops departments will be doing the one armed paperhangar trick of rescheduling crews and aircraft and even bringing in standby machines to sort really big issues out as the knock on effect of delays can be huge.
Airlines have more than 1 aircraft.
Sometimes it is possible to use another aircraft for a delayed flight, either a "spare" aircraft or one that has some ground time scheduled between flights and then use the delayed aircraft for a later flight.
Possibly some routine minor engineering work can be re-scheduled or delayed. The airline may be able to bring an aircraft in from another base or in a serious case sub-charter from another airline.
Sometimes it is possible to use another aircraft for a delayed flight, either a "spare" aircraft or one that has some ground time scheduled between flights and then use the delayed aircraft for a later flight.
Possibly some routine minor engineering work can be re-scheduled or delayed. The airline may be able to bring an aircraft in from another base or in a serious case sub-charter from another airline.
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