Originally Posted by
Reply1984
I think their bottleneck is crew, not the aircraft.
Originally Posted by
brunos
As mentioned by Reply1984, the main issue is crew not plane. Of course, they would like to optimize aircraft usage, but with 2 flights weekly that is not easy.
My main concern is about crew rotation. Crew landing Thursday morning could staff CX372 departing MAD Saturday (or Sunday). But what about the crew from CX315 landing MAD on Saturday morning. WOuld they staf a flight on Sunday?
Or is there another nearby European airport involved?
Is 24hrs enough for crew rest? If so for twice weekly schedule why not do Wed night HK->Thu morning MAD. Rest 24hrs. Fri morning Mad -> HK Sat morning. 2nd set of crew HK Sat night -> Mad Sun morning. Same rest 24 hrs then Mon morning Mad -> HK Tue morning. Aircraft then not needed, but in home base, till Wed night. If there's just one set of MAD crew then like previous but after returning to HK Sat morning, they rest 36hrs before doing Sun night HK -> Mad Mon morning, rest, Mad Tue morning -> HK Wed morning, then we have a problem as they would not have rested before that night's Wed flight. So one needs two sets of crew to do twice weekly? And if crew rest needs more than 24 hours?
Originally Posted by
ernestnywang
I believe you meant twice weekly.
This arrangement is similar to the one for AKL. The plane to AKL sits at the airport for 25 hours before flying back to HKG.
My bad! Corrected =)