Originally Posted by
scottishpoet
And the same happens in reverse with SAA, they leave aircraft on the ground all day at LHR, FRA and MUC
Much like BA/AA/etc (IB less so) to South America, where the aircraft sit on the ground for many hours to operate an overnight flight both ways.
Certain markets that are more leisure oriented (e.g. Rio) have a day flight outbound and the aircraft turns around directly to operate the return. I suppose this is also the rationale behind DUR/MRU/SEZ etc.