likethis

Coming into Porto I noticed that while our BA flight had a short bus journey to the terminal, the EasyJet and Ryanair planes were connected by a bridge.

is that just case of prioritising departures?

fluffymitten

There are several factors:
What the airline is willing to pay for (airbridge is more expensive in most airports)
Timing of arrivals and stand availability at that time
Airline preferences
Suitability of the stand for the type of aircraft
Scheduled turn time (shorter turns will be more likely to have a bridge due to time spent getting resources out to a coached stand)
etc

Probably many others too

orbitmic

Probably a good question for "ask the staffer"! There are different types of factors from what I know:

1) the "permanent" (e.g. many airports charge different amounts for bus/walk/bridge gates so some airlines pick walk or bus gates on purpose to reduce costs);

2) the "structural" (for instance there may always be a bus element in some airports if a plane arrives as domestic but leave as international or vice versa; airports will try to maximise the use of bridges in terms of movements and passengers, so they will often prefer to allocate bridges to the largest planes that can be accommodated in a given gate, and to flights which means that the gate use can be maximised as opposed to being left empty for 2 hours in between rotations; some times are busier than others and increase the risk of bus gates; similarly, in some busy airports, airports try to "share" the burden of bus gates equitable - for instance I know that at NCE in the summer season, they make a point to discuss with airlines early on and "share" bridge space so that BA, LH, etc each get 1-2 bus gates a day but the rest is bridge);

3) the "there and then" (as mentioned by others, gates available at given points in time especially if a plane is early or late, etc

Some airports accommodating long haul planes with long time on the ground tend to disembark at a gate and then ask them to leave the gate only to return later (I've seen it at some Australian airports for instance), but most will just leave the plane at the gate to disembark and embark again so typically it's either bridge or bus for both disembarkation and embarkation unless one is domestic and one international (happens quite a bit for LHR T5 when BA planes which arrive from abroad into a domestic gate where they are positioning for the next flight, so even though passengers are technically connected, they still need to be bussed to international arrivals, same for AF at CDG when a plane arrives from non-Schengen notionally at 2E (e.g UK, some of Eastern Europe) to then fly to Schengen notionally from 2F or the other ways round.

Jumbodriver

Don’t forget U.K. flights need to go via passport control and Schengen flights don’t. It’s often as simple as the airport not having any/any free jetty gates beyond the passport border.

abligh

BA0718 (LHR to ZRH) on Sat 30 Jul got the dreaded A10 bus gate. This was a little surprising given the inbound got in from GLA around 12pm, and I'd been sitting in the CCR looking at multiple open A gates for the entire period. Not sure any of the reasons given above would apply in this case! I guess it's possible they can only do UK arrivals at a certain number of A gates (really?) and once they bussed the passengers off could not be bothered to move the aircraft for takeoff, as presumably that would require a captain.

KARFA

Yes, only A1-A3, and A5-A6 can be used a jetbridge arrivals for domestic flights.

Also if the inbound aircraft is not due to be operated for an outbound for a while (as it sounds like for your case?) it may make more sense to put it on a remote stand rather than tying up one of the few domestic arrival gates for several hours.

layz

That is exactly the case. Due to the layout of the terminal to lowest numbered A gates handle domestic arrivals (no customs or immigration), the highest numbered handle CTA arrivals (Dublin) where customs is required and not immigration and the gates between those handle international.

abligh

Interesting. And I guess moving a plane requires a flight crew, which are in short supply at the moment. So easier to bus the poor passengers? (In this case through A10B which was marked "Gate Closed" to general confusion).

KARFA

I am not sure you need flight crew to position aircraft with a tug although you do need someone on the flight deck. But yes you would certainly need a tug and a few ground staff to basically move the aircraft off the jetbridge and on to a different jetbridge stand, or on to a remote stand and bring it back later.

noFODplease

I was under the impression that an aircraft can be towed with a sufficiently senior engineer in the cockpit but not sure where I got this from and ready to be corrected..!

shefgab

You do not need a flight crew to move an aircraft, just an engineer trained to close the doors/operate the parking break etc.

SpeedbirdLHR

Towing aircraft around LHR during the day isn’t an easy thing given how busy and congested the airfield is already. For those familiar with T3 long hauls and the delays that afternoon flights had, much of this was often down to towing. Some of those aircraft would arrive in morning but there was a 4hr (IIRC) limit to have the aircraft stay at an on pier gate. When this happened, everyone knew that there was an increased risk of a towing delay.

RockyRobin

Don't forget the....if I am on the flight with you then its the bus...

(I wanted to get off 666 posts)

BAeuro

Ive noticed that all day-time BA flights at OPO/LIS have a bus gate, while the night stoppers get a jetty. I’m guessing BA is too mean to pay during the day, citing tight turnarounds, but it is easier overnight.

jhaas2629

I think ORD does this or at least they did in the past. We had an ORD-LHR flight on a 747 and my anxious self was super confused how we were on time, but the plane wasn't at the gate (and stuff like FlightAware's "Where is my Plane?") wasn't working either. Lo and behold, just a short bit before boarding here comes our Queen of the Skies toodling over.