Originally Posted by
pinniped
TATL seems to fit nicely for turning the plane around and sending it back. That is, 7-8 hours in the air each way makes it possible for the plane to do a round trip each day. Overnight east, daytime west, rinse, repeat.
I've always wondered how they optimize utilization on a 14-hour flight. We got to talking about this on our SFO-HKG flight. Where does that 747 go after we deplane in HKG? I'm sure I could figure it out by poring through UA's schedules, but as a general topic, what's the practice for maximizing utilization of TPAC aircraft?
That one's a challenge because of the arrival time, but for a lot of these either the plane turns, or the route is something like IAD-NRT-ORD, or ORD-PEK-IAD. They rotate the planes through, though, so when it lands in ORD, it may get more maintenance. Or if it lands in IAD, it may go to the middle east or Europe on the next leg, and then return early in the morning for a midday departure.