I am a new airline based in Sharjah, UAE. I have 3 8hr waves set out as the following:
Wave 1 5am going East
Wave 2 1pm going West
Wave 3 9pm going East
Now I am looking to add a 4th aircraft shortly but am a bit confused as to what to do because if I send all my Wave 3 9pm flights East, then that means come 5am for Wave 1 we are sending all our aircraft back to the East when all of our connections have just come from the East in Wave 2.
I have already made 1 flight at 9pm head west for the 400km short trip to Doha but that is not too popular although upon return from Doha it’s full so it’s great for connections.
So what should I do? Any help will be much appreciated.
What if I were to create another 3 waves, replicating the same times but the reversal? Thus I would have 6 waves (3x 8hr waves) going in both directions at the same time. Would this work?
Generally, an even number of waves sounds a lot better, because in a usual schedule I’d expect two eastbound departure blocks to result in two arrival blocks and thus resulting in two westbound departure blocks. That’s four waves the way you count.
The problem is that if you look on ASRoute map, it’s hard to get flights if using a 6hr wave cycle in Sharjah. I also don’t really want to change the flights I already have as I would lose some of them if doing a 6hr cycle.
Would what I said work if I do another 3 waves but in the opposite direction? So for example at 5am I have flights heading to the West and East and then again at 1pm and 9pm
Why will you loose flights if you go for 4 waves? If a flight is longer than 6 hours, you miss 1 wave but that is not too bad. Or what else might be the case?
You have 4 directions to fly, hence you should go for 4 waves. Not 3 and not 6.
Have a look on AS Map and the geographical situation of Sharjah. There are no flights South and hardly anything North. It’s virtually East and West connections just like Dubai. I am a new airline so I cannot implement long distance flights such as Moscow or flights from further deep in Africa.
If I were to miss one wave as you suggest will this still be as profitable as doing 6 waves?
there are of course destinations in the south and north. Iran is north and Sychelles for example South. Also, don’t take it too exact - South-East are many fllights possible… :slight_smile
If your airline will be profitable, I cannot tell you. 4 or 6 waves does not make a difference here.
you could also pick one wave that services medium and long haul flights only. if you place it between the two east-east waves, you could, in theory, create the connections between westbound LH and east bound incoming and outbound traffic to fill those waves.
well, your first east bound wave should return around 3:30 - 4.00 am, depending on your hub’s minimum connection time. so LH flights serving this 5am wave, would be preferential