DELee

UA has "rightsized". Rightsized means if everything works, they have the right numbers. When things go wrong as is the case here, it begins to come apart in multiple ways - crew, catering, aircraft, etc. There's very little or no excess capacity on crew with the summer demand, flight schedules, employees out / off / unavailable. Even in LHR or, unlikely for UA, LON.

David

jsloan

I suspect it was considerably cheaper for them to stop at KEF than at LHR, even factoring in the cost of deadheading the crew. LHR's landing fees are about Ł30/seat -- for a 787-10, that'd be about Ł9500 ($11,500). KEF's appear to be €5 / ton MTOW for large aircraft; the 787-10 appears to be rated for a MTOW of about 255t, so €1275 ($1300). If the departure fees are included -- I'm not sure if they are or not for a tech stop -- that's another €5/passenger, or another €1600.

The LHR path is slightly shorter, so they'd presumably make up some of the difference in jet fuel (I didn't look up ATH vs. KEF jet fuel prices), but I think they still come out ahead.

And that's even assuming they could get permission to land an extra flight in a non-emergency situation at an airport that clearly does not want any additional flights this summer.

jcturnbull

that's what i was thinking! but then why not just land in LHR? Capacity restrictions? I also don't know the timing of flights LHR-KEF.

PTahCha

Isn't the landing time during LHR curfew? Also, no takeoffs are allowed between 23:00-06:00, not to mention the lack of unused slots.

WineCountryUA

Have you followed the recent LHR issues and the airport requiring carriers to cut flights. A quick read in the BA forum makes you glad if not using LHR,

And this diversion was non-emergency, why not KEF?

Seems like a good choice and easy for UA to get relief crew to. Going farther west meant more time to get into place, shorter flight for the relief crew (need to minimize that as it will effect their rest/duty time).. For ever hour of flight before the stop, you add 2 hours of planning time. Best to go as far as allowed.

LarryJ

No way to answer these questions as every situation is different. All options would have been considered and, this time, KEF worked out best.

This is typical of a long-haul flight when one member of the augmented crew becomes ill on the layover. The remaining crew can fly but are limited (generally) to either 8 or 9 hours of flight time. A stop is planned at some intermediate point where a replacement crew can take over. Sometimes the replacement crew is flown in. Sometimes it is a crew that was already going to be there who are rescheduled to depart earlier on the affected flight. This leaves additional time to position replacement crews for the replacement crew's original flight. The logistics can get very complicated.

Repooc17

Original departure time from the diverted airport was much earlier; originally it was scheduled to arrive in EWR at 9pm.

I think there were also medical issues on board, which delayed the take off time at the diverted airport.

MatthewLAX

A child got sick onboard in KEF. Medical kit was used onboard, Delay was waiting for new med kit.

LarryJ

The replacement pilots, for the KEF-EWR leg, came from EWR and had a minimum rest layover in KEF before the return.

worldtrav

My understanding is LHR will not accept any diversions unless the crew declare an emergency. A pre planned crew swap would not qualify.