Hey!
i just wanted to say: very good work! As a Ramp Agent in Dusseldorf, i have to say that the turnaround times are very realistic, also the possibility that also CRJs, ATRs can carry cargo and the seperation between bulk and container load is fantastic.
Thanks, I'm vary happy to hear this :)
@Saadplus ... I have a friend who was a handling supervisor in DUS as well and he told me a few weeks ago that they turned over a full 189 pax 738 with 400 bags and catering in 17 minutes. Deborading, cleaning, catering, crew change, refueling, boarding, pushback. Just saying ...
Once we get cleaning settings and baggage restrictions into the game, we should get closer to very short turnaround times. But there will always be outliers, in either direction. I'm pretty sure a crew that has a shitty day with stuff going south will turn around the same 738 in double the time ;)
@Saadplus ... I have a friend who was a handling supervisor in DUS as well and he told me a few weeks ago that they turned over a full 189 pax 738 with 400 bags and catering in 17 minutes. Deborading, cleaning, catering, crew change, refueling, boarding, pushback. Just saying ...
Yeah, it could be even possible. But these turnarounds are not very often, you need to be very lucky for that. My shortest turnaround was an Air Berlin Flight MUC-DUS-MUC, A320. 12 minutes after on blocks, the aircraft was ready to get offblock again. But for that, u have to cancel cleaning, Boarding was finished and the full pax busses on position before the aircraft was even on blocks, fueling with firebrigade on standby so that we could fuel with Pax aboard. And of course, 2 loadinggroups so that we could offload and load the front and aft bulk in the same time. You see: very short turnarounds are possible, but they have to be well planned and are not usual
and by the way: the standard turnaround time for a Ryanair 738 is only 20min, at Air Berlin it is 45-50min.
But: a difference between this game and reality is: In real life, the turnaround begins at On-Blocks and is finished at Off-Blocks, so the taxi time is not part of the turnaround itself.
The one thing I note is that catering seems like it takes longer than in reality. Using CRKs, it shouldn't be ~30 minutes worth of catering. In real life, each plane takes about 6-8 minutes at most. For a 321, it takes about 15-20 if pulling front to back and about 10 when you do a dual approach.
Is the intent of having the taxi time included in the turnaround time to include the possibility of a tarmac delay due to an occupied gate?
Is the intent of having the taxi time included in the turnaround time to include the possibility of a tarmac delay due to an occupied gate?
Taxi time is included in the turnaround time because otherwise you would have a mess with the slots. It would be difficult to separate taxi time, right now you have 3 limits into which you must fall into, two slots and one block of turnaround time (whether split or continuous, does not matter). If you separated taxi times, you would have 5 blocks. It would become unbearably complicated to mix and match them all 5.
The one thing I note is that catering seems like it takes longer than in reality. Using CRKs, it shouldn't be ~30 minutes worth of catering. In real life, each plane takes about 6-8 minutes at most. For a 321, it takes about 15-20 if pulling front to back and about 10 when you do a dual approach.
I understand why the catering takes so long if this happens:
1862
eham_picsSorry for the lack of real aviation pics, but this is all I have for the moment . This catering guy stood like this for 10 min, because the flight crew wouldn't let him in Airline: Arke (Miami Air)
Aircraft: Boeing 737
Type: -800
Location: Departure from Kaagbaan
Airport: EHAM, Schiphol
Picture by eham_pics on Instagram
Yeah, it could be even possible. But these turnarounds are not very often, you need to be very lucky for that. My shortest turnaround was an Air Berlin Flight MUC-DUS-MUC, A320. 12 minutes after on blocks, the aircraft was ready to get offblock again. But for that, u have to cancel cleaning, Boarding was finished and the full pax busses on position before the aircraft was even on blocks, fueling with firebrigade on standby so that we could fuel with Pax aboard. And of course, 2 loadinggroups so that we could offload and load the front and aft bulk in the same time. You see: very short turnarounds are possible, but they have to be well planned and are not usual
Is this not more expensive than a normal turn around. Why was this flight in such a rush?
@ CBE, perhaps the plane came in late and as MUC closes during the night there was a rush to release the plane back to Munich.
I had this moment 15 years back from FRA to MUC. The plane came in very late, it was the last flight to MUC in the evening and the crew was very nervous to start with sufficient flight time to MUC to avoid a landing somewhere else. Normally the flight would have taken 50 minutes but as soon as all passengers were sitting in the plane, the pilot started the engines and rushed towards Munich. He made it possible to make it in 35 minutes - we landed a couple of minutes before MUC was closed. And this time everybody was clapping even in a Lufthansa flight - everybody was happy to be home instead of landing in Nurembourg or flying back to FRA and having another travel by train or bus.
I cannot remember how many people were working around the plane in FRA but it seemed to us - everybody who was able to carry something. :-)
Is this not more expensive than a normal turn around. Why was this flight in such a rush?
A normal quick turn time for a regional jet here in the US is 25-40 minutes. That being said, I can and have done a full CRJ-900 turn in about 15 minutes with just one other person. It had nothing to do with a curfew or anything but rather it was just us getting the plane more back on time as a courtesy to the passengers and our operation.
Is there any plan to implement the difference between international turns and domestic turns?
Wouldn’t the turnaround be more dependent on the stuff being done than international vs domestic ?
As I understood, the kind of catering being loaded already affects the time it takes to load it, so this is already implemented .
As I understood, the kind of catering being loaded already affects the time it takes to load it, so this is already implemented .
That is right. Currently the turnaround can only be affected by airport size, type of boarding, number of passengers, number of seats, amount of fuel needed and catering selected.
Is this not more expensive than a normal turn around. Why was this flight in such a rush?
There were severe thunderstorms in MUC until evening. The return flight already had a night-landing permission for MUC, but not for DUS. While the plane was flying towards DUS with around 3 hours delay, the return flight was already cancelled, but then we decided to give it a try and well, it worked. Plane was on-Blocks at 21:28LT and off-Blocks at 21:40. (In DUS, you have to be off-Blocks at least 21:49)
Maybe that would be a new feature to think about: there should be a possibility to make very quick turnarounds for higher costs