Originally Posted by
Fanjet
Why is it suboptimal? It's only a two-hour layover. And the aircraft is being utilized overnight as opposed to a typical RON of 6 or 8 hours. Plus, it is still available during the day to do another roundtrip from CLT; like to the Carribean, for example.
I assume that the "suboptimal" characterization arose because of the somewhat leisurely two hour turn with the implication being that it would be more efficient if the flight departed CLT later in the evening and was scheduled for a 60 minute turn at SJC.
What
taxicubnumber may not have considered is that with a banked hub, the departure time from CLT is somewhat fixed (so that it departs during that bank) and that any downtime occurs at the outstations. Under the pmAA MO of rolling hubs, planes often turned quickly at outstations but may have spent more time sitting in the hubs. With the banked hubs, planes will sit more often at the spokes.
Originally Posted by
phlwookie
It's also an opportunity to absorb some delays that may have accumulated in the aircraft's schedule throughout the day, as opposed to, say, a scheduled 45-60 minute turn.
Very good point. If there are evening departure delays at CLT or unexpected headwinds or accumulated rolling delays, the two hour turn at SJC increases the chances that the flight will arrive at CLT on-time, which is very important because this flight depends on successful connections at CLT.