Originally Posted by
Mr.Nuke
A crew could be deadheading over on one of the flights. There are also a fair amount of pilots stuck in Europe right now when you think about all of the crews who got stranded over there waiting for their inbound flights that never made it in. In theory one of those crews could've been repositioned. In addition, they are now sending a 3rd 764 to MAD tonight as well from the looks of it.
It appears that they are using the same crew for the return. I see that the extra 762 to LIS arrived there at 9:32am and is not scheduled out until 6:50pm. Same thing at MAD. The extra 764 arrived at 12:43pm and is scheduled to depart at 1:15am to arrive in EWR at 3am. It suggests that they are allowing the crews the minimum times to rest and then fly the birds back home.
It looks like EWR immigration and customs folks are going to have to work at 3am tonight.