Turnaround times - just how fast can they be????

[juddles]

Hello all,

this is not an exciting thread, but it is the product of my curiosity.

I spent today doing several flights around Colombia on Avianca. For their domestic routes the plane of choice is an A320. Anyway, one of my flights was delayed due to bad weather (only half an hour or so) but I was upset as I only had a 30 minute connection time in the capital Bogota to catch my last flight home, and I really wanted to get there.

Upon arrival at Bogota I raced out of the plane (saying a quick thankyou to one of the crew members), ran down the long path back to the terminal, then outside and along the terminal towards the departure area, in through the security checks, then back out the long walk to the boarding area. As I scampered up the walkway to the plane, happy as Larry that I had not missed it, I said hello to the greeting cabin crew. It was the same guy I had just said goodbye to. He laughed.

I always book the same seat on these, and sure enough in the seat pocket was the inflight magazine with my half-completed sudoku, which I was then able to complete.

What truly amazed me was that the cabin was fresh, tidy, and pushback occurred less than 30 minutes after we had arrived!

Is this normal? Are turnaround times this short??

 

[harvyk]

I have heard that Southwest tries to do 10 minute turn-arounds. Basically for every minute a plane is not in the air (on a normal scheduled service without delays or disruptions), it is costing the airline money. So most LCC's and even some full service airlines have really try to reduce the time it takes.

 

[The Rok]

I know that Ryanair have a standard turnaround time of 25 minutes at most of their airports with a few exceptions. I believe that is from touch down to rolling start also but I may be wrong on that part...

 

[richie9x]

Qantas seem to be able to turn around domestic 737s in 45 minutes. I think it really comes down to how fast they can off load passenger and cargo. Give the cabin a quick clean and replenish supplies. Then load the next lot of passengers. With perhaps a few minutes leeway to absorb delays. For longer trips time to refuel would come into play.

For LCCs 30 minutes seems pretty typical. They normally don't clean the cabin after every flight. Use front and back doors to speed up boarding.

 

[mannej]

Qantas seem to be able to turn around domestic 737s in 45 minutes. I think it really comes down to how fast they can off load passenger and cargo. Give the cabin a quick clean and replenish supplies. Then load the next lot of passengers. With perhaps a few minutes leeway to absorb delays. For longer trips time to refuel would come into play.

For LCCs 30 minutes seems pretty typical. They normally don't clean the cabin after every flight. Use front and back doors to speed up boarding.

The scheduled turn around is quicker than that for QF. I am aware of some 40 minute turn arounds, but I guess these are at some of the smaller airport.

 

[here2go]

SK have got me doing 30 minutes between planes in CPH in January.

 

[pagingjoan]

SK have got me doing 30 minutes between planes in CPH in January.

Is it a continuing flight? Some of those CPH gates are quite a hike!

 

[yohy?!]

JQ HK is planning to turn around their A320s in 25 min - how that is going to work on mainlan china routes is anyones guess!

VA has always had 30 min turns I believe.

 

[Major]

Some years ago I was waiting at LAS for a flight back to LAX and from the time the aircraft pulled up at the gate and doors close for the return it was about 15 min.

Can't remember which airline but I was amazed at the quick turnaround

 

[yohy?!]

Some years ago I was waiting at LAS for a flight back to LAX and from the time the aircraft pulled up at the gate and doors close for the return it was about 15 min.

Can't remember which airline but I was amazed at the quick turnaround

hopefully you didn't have to sit in the previous person's crumbs nor put up with lack of toilet paper

 

[Major]

hopefully you didn't have to sit in the previous person's crumbs nor put up with lack of toilet paper

For a 40 min flight who cares about eating or going to the loo

 

[here2go]

For a 40 min flight who cares about eating or going to the loo

Politicians and public servants. The mad host and hostess's 737 dash on the CBR-SYD is an amazing spectacle. Dash-8s it is a bit more civilised as you get to altitude quicker and fewer people. I haven't flown the route on DJ since it became Virgin Australia, but they took orders on the ground because it was so crazy.

 

[samh004]

I always find it odd that Virgin manages to do super quick turnarounds in Mackay with their e-jets but Qantas struggles with their Q400/300's and 717's, which I'd have thought would be a quicker job.




 

[an*g-bne]

I recall once complimenting the cabin crew of a DJ flight ROK-BNE on a E190. Very late inbound BNE-ROK, and I timed it from doors open to disembark a reasonably full load, to doors closed after boarding a reasonably full load at 18 minutes. The in-flight supervisor laughed and said her record was 14 minutes.

 

[Simo]

I have noticed on VA they start cleaning before the end of the flight.

Cebu Pacific I have seen them do about 15 to 20 min turnaround.

As the last person walked off the flight they had already started checking people in and was in the area to go on the flight.

And that was in the middle of the night.

 

[TheEmu]

Hello all,

this is not an exciting thread, but it is the product of my curiosity.

I spent today doing several flights around Colombia on Avianca. For their domestic routes the plane of choice is an A320. Anyway, one of my flights was delayed due to bad weather (only half an hour or so) but I was upset as I only had a 30 minute connection time in the capital Bogota to catch my last flight home, and I really wanted to get there.

Upon arrival at Bogota I raced out of the plane (saying a quick thankyou to one of the crew members), ran down the long path back to the terminal, then outside and along the terminal towards the departure area, in through the security checks, then back out the long walk to the boarding area. As I scampered up the walkway to the plane, happy as Larry that I had not missed it, I said hello to the greeting cabin crew. It was the same guy I had just said goodbye to. He laughed.

I always book the same seat on these, and sure enough in the seat pocket was the inflight magazine with my half-completed sudoku, which I was then able to complete.

That's a great start to a thread, juddles​!
That is hilarious!
That would have been a very satisfying sudoku to complete

 

[pauly7]

QF Link frequently manage sub 30 min turnarounds on the turbo props - especially when they are trying to make up time if the arriving flight has run late for example.

My world record was a Q400 turnaround in LST, I waited for my premium hand luggage, collected it walked into terminal, just got inside terminal and they had begun boarding the return flight already, by the time I was in the lounge doors were closed and props started spinning. Was amazing!!! All wheels up at about 20 min from landing.

They were running late

 

[michaelj]

I often fly regional NZ routes, particularly in and out of NPE. AirNZ regularly turn them around in 15 minutes or so.

 

[Verde]

The scheduled turn around is quicker than that for QF. I am aware of some 40 minute turn arounds, but I guess these are at some of the smaller airport.

I think I saw one of the Qantaslink planes do it in not far off ten minutes a year or two ago. They were running late, the passengers disembarked, they were barely off before they were starting to let us board. I was quite impressed at the time, but I've never seen anywhere near the hurry since (even when they probably should have).

The opposite has happened once though too. I'm fairly sure it was Dubbo - plane was 15 minutes late to arrive, then everyone got off (bar one), then they pulled the steps away, put the wheelchair lift (for lack of a better term) in place, got the disabled person out, put the steps back, then started boarding so it ended up being quite late to depart (I think it made me miss my connecting flight by the time I got through security screening in Sydney).