Hi FT members, this is my first post after a fair while of being a member. First of all I have to say how good I find this forum, it has certainly helped me make the most of my BAEC membership and get to Silver in my first year as well as a couple of cheeky UuA into CW. Keep up the informative posts

My question is this one - I notice that some routes involve the aircraft being parked at the destination for what seems like a long time when it could be earning revenue. Examples include LHR-JNB - the outbound arrives into JNB at 06.55 yet doesn't return until 20.25 that evening - this seems like a long time (13.5 hours) to be sat not earning any revenue and means that effectively the aircraft is doing 22 hours flying but spends 35.5 hours servicing the route.

I know the LHR-HKG route is similar too.

I am by no means an expert in the aviation industry but given the fact that aircraft only earn money for BA when they are flying, I wondered if anyone could shed any light on why BA are happy to have the aircraft on the ground for so long?

I'm sure there is a valid thought process here but it doesn't seem to make sense to me. Surely they would want the aircraft to be turned around and returning to LHR ASAP so they can increase it's utilisation, making it more profitable?