Originally Posted by LGA_UAL

I was going through the timetable for United flights into GRU, and I noticed something that surprised me. United has three flights that arrive GRU in the morning. Two of them appear to sit on the ground in GRU for over 12 hours, while one goes up to GIG and sits there for 10 hours. UA825 arrives at 7:10AM, UA861 arrives at 10:25AM, and UA843 arrives at 11:30AM. One of those aircraft goes to GIG at 12:10PM and sits there until 8:10PM. The first departure out of GRU back to the US isn't until UA842 at 10:15PM, followed by UA860 at 11:40PM, and UA824 at 11:59PM. Even the 763 that does IAD-EZE-MVD-EZE-IAD appears to spend 6 hours in MVD. Is the only way to operate these South American routes really with that much ground time? I've only been to South America once (took JJ), and I took a night flight, but I do know that JJ has (had?) a day flight down to GRU. It seems that at a time when UA has such a shortage of aircraft that routes that require 12 hours of aircraft out of service would be hard to justify. Are day flights down to South America just impossible to fill, because they also don't make great connections? I was just shocked to see that UA can afford to have two 767 sit 12 hours each in GRU everyday.