Does departure time matter in relation to other scheduled flights to the same destination? Like can I schedule two Chicago to New York flights for the exact same time or very close to the same departure time? Or do I need to leave a certain amount of time between each departure?
No, not really. No one is really stopping you. However, it’s kinda a jerk move as it occupies 2 slots on both ends when you could be operating a highee capacity aircraft.
If you have strong Connections at that specific time, then it might make sense. otherwise the only reason many airlines schedule different flights throughout the day if they can is to “catch” Connections at every hour, not just the range for one time. however I’ve also seen many airlines operate 2 flights one minute apart with A321s in order to “feed” a wave at their airport.
It’s really up to you, but in summary, the range of departures (and on that note, time of day) only affects connection and not the flights themselves or their ORS ratings
The reason for that is that if two flights have a 100 ORS rating pax will be distributed equally on both flights. Since it’s ridiculously easy to get a 100 rating even with narrowbody aircraft on long-haul routes, players apply this tactics because they’d loose out if they operate a widebody while their opponent operates a narrowbody.
They’ll be distributed like this no matter what the score is, as long as it’s positive.
That well describes my major gripe with AS. You do get more pax the higher the rating is, but you can get even more the more frequency you offer - even at not so good ratings. All this leads to smaller aircraft, bigger seats, less slots and no chance for startups.
And no, not everyone is doing it because of what you say. I indeed schedule multiple flights on the same route within minutes, simply because of keeping them in wave. Everything else makes no sense when you schedule waves only and have close to 100% connecting pax. But yes, I’m fully aware that this also tricks the system as it exponentially increases the number of ORS entries.
It’s exactly this why I demand a new demand distribution.
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Thanks, both of you. Both of you have valid points.
What I meant to say toward the end is that having more connections will not necessarily affect the flights individually in terms of their ratings. If I have 1 flight to LHR instead of 2 that does not mean the flights themselves will have more ORS rating as a result.
As for demand, yes. I see where two flights same comes in handy especially considering the 24-hour booking cycles when both flights will book themselves equally.
I run a pretty heavy Connection system (more loose in my main hub but very tight in my secondaries) so I guess why these are unseen, and my bookings do tend to trickle in throughout. One of my ORD-EZE flights yesterday had 239/240 pax being inbound connections, and about 10-15 being outbounds. So I guess I can’t really say for some of you more LCC O+D systems especially those “Holiday Airlines” running strict O+D’s.
AK - maybe an 8 hour cycle instead of 24 hour, as well as some system which takes certain times more valuable in ORS than others? I think those could do something
No, but a system away from the current frequency (number of ORS entries) based algorithm.
It’s highly unreal to have more pax booking the worse rated connection the more (of those worse) connections are offered.