Same Route, Same Plane, Same Day, Different Flight Times?
Aug 14, 2016 | 5:56 pm
#1
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Same Route, Same Plane, Same Day, Different Flight Times?
On SNA->SFO today, there are six flights, four on E175s. The scheduled flight times for those identical flights are 1:27, 1:28, 1:29, and 1:34. How are those scheduled flight times decided, and why would they be different?
Aug 14, 2016 | 5:58 pm
#2
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Aug 14, 2016 | 6:13 pm
#4
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(Kind of) interesting to me is whether if on different days of the week, the same flight's anticipated flight time varies, do they break those out into different lines of the schedule (you know the old PDF schedule)?
Aug 14, 2016 | 6:21 pm
#5
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Extrapolation of historical data, including expected traffic delays, anticipated routing, winds aloft, planned fuel loads, and probably a lot more.
Aug 14, 2016 | 6:22 pm
#6
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UA322
Departs : 8:00 AM SNA
Arrives : 9:32 AM SFO
UA5337
Departs :11:23 AM SNA
Arrives : 12:57 PM SFO
UA5933
Departs : 3:05 PM SNA
Arrives : 4:33 PM SFO
UA529
Departs : 5:05 PM SNA
Arrives : 6:26 PM SFO
UA5791
Departs : 6:15 PM SNA
Arrives : 7:42 PM SFO
UA5873
Departs : 8:20 PM SNA
Arrives : 9:49 PM SFO
Departs : 8:00 AM SNA
Arrives : 9:32 AM SFO
UA5337
Departs :11:23 AM SNA
Arrives : 12:57 PM SFO
UA5933
Departs : 3:05 PM SNA
Arrives : 4:33 PM SFO
UA529
Departs : 5:05 PM SNA
Arrives : 6:26 PM SFO
UA5791
Departs : 6:15 PM SNA
Arrives : 7:42 PM SFO
UA5873
Departs : 8:20 PM SNA
Arrives : 9:49 PM SFO
Aug 14, 2016 | 6:24 pm
#7
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UA5337 duration 1:34 (11:23 - 12:57)
UA5933 duration 1:28 (3:05 - 4:33)
UA5791 duration 1:27 (6:15 - 7:42)
UA5873 duration 1:29 (8:20 - 9:49)
Aug 14, 2016 | 6:27 pm
#8
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Got lock on a similiar recent thread - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ariations.html
Aug 14, 2016 | 6:36 pm
#10
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What I will perhaps never understand is that it's all fake precision. You can estimate one flight to be two minutes longer an average because of more taxiing delays at SFO, but departure (push) time variance is going to dwarf this computation so I really wonder.. what value can it possibly provide?
Aug 14, 2016 | 6:37 pm
#11
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Seems weird to extraploate to that fine scale of single minutes, when completely unpredictable, yet ubiquitous, factors introduce much larger variation in flight duration.
Aug 14, 2016 | 7:08 pm
#12
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They have to pick something.
And if there are known and repeatable variations in performance at different times of day (and, yes, there absolutely are; I've run the numbers on DOT data covering a large span of time and documented it for another job) then you absolutely should account for it in planning. Moreover, more aggressive scheduling means generally lower labor costs, assuming the schedule can hold. The airline's goal has to be to schedule the bare minimum it can reliably operate. And UA's on-time numbers keep ticking up.
And if there are known and repeatable variations in performance at different times of day (and, yes, there absolutely are; I've run the numbers on DOT data covering a large span of time and documented it for another job) then you absolutely should account for it in planning. Moreover, more aggressive scheduling means generally lower labor costs, assuming the schedule can hold. The airline's goal has to be to schedule the bare minimum it can reliably operate. And UA's on-time numbers keep ticking up.