Originally Posted by
Salisbury5
Its Tuesday, May 22, 2007 and you are starting your new job today as an Air Canada Flight Scheduler.
1. Your first job is to schedule a flight from YYZ to "Porttle", a fictitious city half way between San Francisco and Seattle on the coast of Oregon just north of the California border. The city has a population roughly the same as Portland, is primarily business oriented due a base of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, but there is a tourist component as well.
Between connections and passengers originating in Toronto, there are between 100-130 passengers who want to travel to and from Porttle every business day and Sunday, and about 70-90 passengers on a typical Saturday.
When do you schedule this flight, using what aircraft, on what days, and why?
Are these numbers stable year round?
Does Porttle have any intercontinental services?
Do people drive to Portland or Seattle to go to Europe or Asia, or do they fly to hubs to get international connections?
What is the elevation of the airport, and what is the average day-time temp in July and August (relevant for takeoff weight)?
Is the airport severely slot controlled like Orange County?
Does the airport have ample gate capacity at all times, or are gates hard to come by at peak times?
Does the airport have the necessary US customs status for international flights (again, even with preclearance in Canada, US airports have to have a particular status to support international air services - Orange County is an example of an airport that does not)?
What is UA's status in Porttle? Is it big enough to generate some traffic on the code-share that would move on other carriers?
What is the split between Canada-origin and US-origin traffic in the YYZ-Porttle market?
What is the traffic contribution expected from YOW/YUL/YHZ/YQB, etc, on that daily YYZ-Porttle flight, if any?
If the split is primarily origin Canada, primarily business, with little cargo or express/mail traffic, I might look at an E-190 departing Toronto in the evening and returning as a red-eye, thereby maximizing the use of the aircraft, picking up connecting traffic from other eastern points for the YYZ-Porttle leg and returning just as Pearson opens, allowing for good connections pretty well anywhere in AC's network, including the dayliner to London. That allows business travellers a full business day in Porttle. But that's just me.