findark

Some of the busiest airports I have ever seen have been before 6am... including SFO at 5am on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.

I don't get it either.

WineCountryUA

cheaper tickets?

UA scheduling as early as crew rest times allow and getting the aircraft and crews operating as soon as possible increasing resource utilization.

Win for the passengers, win for UA

Also, for out stations you need to get started early to make reasonable connections to longer flights. To catch that 8-9-10 AM hub departure, you need to start at an outstation at 6-ish

prestonh

As a pax I would rather choose the early departure than a redeye for obvious reasons. Early morning departures also tends to avoid some of the hassles with later flights such as traffic, some types of weather delays (convective tstorms, fog on inbound arrivals if the ac is already Ron, ground holds etc). Ymmv

HNLbasedFlyer

I reluctantly took a 6am out of LAS a couple of weeks ago as it was the only viable way to connect to a lie-flat to HNL to arrive late morning otherwise it was 757's and 737's or late arrival. I did not enjoy waking up at 3:45am

Lux Flyer

Used to routinely fly on a 5am flight from MSP - ORD (prepandemic when airlines actually scheduled this early). Was perfect being able to spend an extra evening with family instead of rushing out to the airport on a Sunday night, and got me in early enough that getting downtown from the airport was not yet a headache. Would have also been great if I was ever connecting anywhere instead of terminating at ORD as it arrived in time for the first real bank of departures from ORD. Suffice it to say, those early flights were always booked full and super reliable. Only ever got burned not getting back in time once, and that was moreso due to a weather issue on a Monday after Thanksgiving than with the time of the flight (in fact that flight would have been my best bet at getting back to beat the weather, but they put the GS in place right when we were getting ready to push).

satan666

Routinely do the RAP/DEN pair. Never had a cancellation due to low passenger count. 1st flight of the day susceptible typically to cancellation of prior day incoming due to weather, traffic control or UE goof-ups in DEN which is typically a delay rather than cancellation. No indication that will be a problem on the 3rd or 4th. Check to see the status of 4714 after 9:00 pm on the 3rd.

Always the possibility of a mechanical or a crew problems but the 7:30 flight shows open seats. Arriving early in DEN has a lot of possibilities for IRROPS re-connections.

Airframe N624UX likely needed in DEN for next segment. Likelihood of RAP-DEN cancellation is typically mechanical, crew problems, high winds. visibility and ice on the RAP runway. Seems to be low odds for your your flight.

mfirst

I guess I am really not that worried about cancelation as I am aware of the need for the airframe somewhere else - a concept that I became familiar with regarding late night flights into CLE years ago in which it was rare to cancel anything because they needed the place for something else later....

but, I just think the excess capacity is interesting....

I always thought that flights eventually follow the laws of thermodynamics - if a full flight arrives at RAP (for example) then at some point those people fly out of RAP...yes, I know there are tourist routes that fly people into one city and leave out of another.... but I just find all of this route scheduling interesting to some of these outposts sites (I used to live in ATW and those flights - more so than any other in WI - appeared to be 'mission critical')......


at least I got an early upgrade on ab hour long flight without having to burn PP.... saving those for the pleasure of watching them expire un-used.

findark

For operational Express cancels, the RON trip is the one which is almost never scrubbed. They will drop hub-turns during the day to catch up if there are weather delays, but in my experience they will try very hard to get the frame to its outstation for the night. This leads to the first and last flights of the day being some of the most reliable (the last flight is often delayed, but it almost always operates).

mfirst

Yes, I’ve found the last flights of the day going to cleveland- my old home - always went (eventually)

while the focus was if the flight would leave, it did, I think I count 5 in first. Lots behind the curtains but surprised that there was not enough with status to fill the front.

WineCountryUA

And the inbound while also light in F, had all but 3 seats taken in economy

FriendlySkies

I always say ‘never again’ after I take any flight around 0600. Somehow I continue to book those insanely early flights. On the upside, I get off work at 0300, so I can head straight to MCI and get almost a full day depending on where I fly.

Repooc17

Love bright and early morning flights. No need to get to airport early; just show up 5 minutes before boarding.

OTP is great for early AM flights.