Flew ARN-LHR yesterday. Scheduled departure 21:10 but boarding only commenced at 21:00. I think we pushed around 21:25, which was pretty good going all things considered, and arrived only a couple of minutes behind schedule.

The inbound from LHR is scheduled to arrive at ARN at 20:30, and my understanding is that yesterday's inbound was a little late, but only about 5-10 minutes. As it happens the crew and ground staff did a good job yesterday, but it occurred to me that even if everything runs perfectly on time the 40 minute turnaround is pretty tight. Add in even a small delay, which is obviously common with LHR ops, and the delay might be more significant.

Is there a minimum turnaround time that BA operates? There can't be many tighter turnaround times than that for an A320. I imagine the ARN flight suffers regular delays.

Minimum turnround time is set separately for each station, depending on its characteristics. When you describe an arrival, bear in mind this is not time on the runway, which BA regularly announce as 'arrival time'. It is when the door is opened at the terminal.

Bear in mind that Easyjet expect to turn round an A320, with more passengers that BA, in 20-25 minutes at the bulk of their outstations.

40mins is pretty typical at outstations.

The published flight duration time is not time in the air either but does allow for some delays to be absorbed.

yes we do have some minimum turnaround times, the 319 is 35 mins, 320 40mins whilst the absolute minimum is 45 mins for a 321.
As you said it yourself these timings are very tight, especially when there are Customers who need assistance disembarking/boarding or when the CE configurations changes drastically.
And that are mainly the reasons why Boarding does not start when it should be on both outstations and LHR/LGW.

BA wants to work the aircraft harder in future, hence a lot of frontline staff are being sceptical about reducing turnaround times as it will simply mean more delays

Well Easyjet seem to manage OK with quick turnarounds, and it isn't as if the proposition is that different.

I've seen BA do it in 30 mins easily at Gibraltar. Catered at LHR for both flights, pax off by both doors, ex-GIB passengers ready to board at same time, quick clean and away. OK add a few minutes for bigger airports but with the right organisation it can be done for sure.

I'll just mention in passing that I used to see PSA in California constantly turn round a 727-200 (about 160Y) in 15 minutes. They didn't do food but they did everything else. They used to get 5 or 6 round trips a day between LA and San Francisco out of each aircraft.

If the man whose job it was to marshal them in wasn't at their post (a Terminal 5 favourite for the stand guidance operator) whenever they came in then I'm sure the station manager would have been fired.

Comair in ZA routinely has 30-minute turnarounds in its schedules.

A few weeks back, though, a misunderstanding about boarding showed me how its done. As soon as all the inbound passengers are off, "boarding" starts and moves the queue down the jetway to the aircraft door. There everyone waits until the cleaners and caterers have finished, whereupon the queue is admitted into the inner sanctum.

Easyjet also make use of both front and back doors which makes a huge difference to the turn around time, especially the onload, where-as BA, at most stations opt to use the Airbridge. Some stations use an Airbridge and back steps like EDI and GLA for both boarding and disembarkation. However, this is not possible at every station due to which side of the aircraft is used for fueling.

The clock starts as soon as the brakes are applied. This is the 'On-chocks' time. So, if we take a typical fully loaded (132 seats) A319. The turn would be as follows:

*A/C arrived on stand on the hour - lets say 12:00
*12:01 Bridge attached (Lets assume Airbridge only used)
*12:02 First passenger disembarked
*12:12 Last passenger disembarked
*12:12 Cleaners board the aircraft
*12:17 Boarding down the airbridge commences
*12:21 Cleaners leave aircraft (Cleaners given 9 mins max)
*12:22 Boarding onto aircraft starts
*12:32 Boarding complete
*12:32 Doors closed (BA require doors to be closed 3 mins before departure)
*12:35 Aircraft pushes back

In the above scenario, there is absolutely no slack to be had, and some turn arounds can also include Cabin config changes, Crew changes and catering changes.

So it takes 50% of the time that Easyjet/Ryanair take to do the complete turnround, just to disembark the incoming pax, notwithstanding that a BA aircraft has less seats, which themselves typically have a lower load factor, and more travel-savvy passengers - and yet there is "absolutely no slack".

Incidentally, Easyjet also use jetways at a significant number of their points.

Easyjet at certain airports (certainly at NCE) uses the jetway to board the front door for rows 1-15 and sends the others down stairs to board the back door. Fortunately it doesn't rain that often in Nice, but I've done this several times and it's a remarkably slick operation. Same for disembarking. They also do the boarding pass scan whilst incoming passengers disembark and leave the passengers in a holding area (not very pleasant).

Is there any reason why BA could not do a front and rear boarding at more airports? I presume there are additional costs associated with it, but would have thought that these might be offset by a better on time performance.

As regards the holding area, these do not necessarily have to be unpleasant. KLM uses this method for some flights out of Schiphol, but the holding area is usually pretty big, and the scanning starts only a few minutes before boarding, so your time in the holding area tends to be minimal. I've also experienced it at LCY, where it was very cramped.

Having just had the *pleasure* of flying EZY I was very impressed by their operation. Boarding and disembarking at LGW done via an air bridge attached to L1.

On the way back I was tracking the inbound on Flightradar. The flight was still 20mins from the airport when we were called to board. As soon as it landed we were then escorted out and held as we watched the remaining arriving passengers disembark and the cleaners finish up. As we taxied out the crew commented to each other that they had turned around in 15 minutes. Not bad at all.

If anyone is flying s/h today and especially where you can see passengers disembarking (domestic it is easy, bru you can if the connections door is open, any back to backers today?) time how long it takes to get people off, then boarding time, then report here. On a busy flight with all kinds of carryon shenanigans its a good bit longer than 10mins on ba for off and on!

As stated earlier, it's to do with the method of fueling. At airports where there is an underground hydrant fuel supply, the fuel truck simply parks under the left wing and connects one hose to the aircraft and another hose to the fuel hydrant. You may ask why the fueller doesn't fuel under the right wing !? This is because the loading teams would be unable to maneuver the baggage container trailers with the fuel truck parked under the wing (BA use containerized loading on LHR based shorthaul fleet). Easyjet, for example use the 'bulk' loading method, and is easier for the loading team to position the trailers of bags. without causing conflict with the fueller. At airports that do not have an underground hydrant system, you will notice that the aircraft is refuelled using a Tanker which parks on the right hand side of the aircraft away from the loading team and connect directly to the aircraft using a long hose. This in turn frees up the left hand side of the aircraft for boarding/de-boarding.

The other factor is the that on U2 and others, they ask the passengers multiple times to clear their own area by waving big refuse bags up and down the aisle. However if you think Highlife can look a bit dog eared, you should see what they are like on Easyjet. At European locations BA would also need to move CE partitions, curtains and seats potentially, hopefully less so on Domestics.

I've seen NCL turn around a 320 in 25 minutes, admittedly they will have all the support crew lined up and ready to pounce as soon as the aircraft is rolling towards Gate 3. Still, given that some passengers do seem to take their time to leave the aircraft (at NCL they sometimes send someone from the back of the aircraft to shoo them off) it is quite an achievement to do it so fast.