But, that schedule also relies heavily on the people working to turn around the planes quickly between flights. There's a lot to be done in the typical hour window of time between flights: unload passengers, unload bags, refuel, clean the aircraft, restock catering supplies, perform maintenance, change crews, reload bags, reload passengers.
There are a lot of people hitting that aircraft making sure that it is ready for a safe departure," Taney said. Weather and maintenance issues often affect on-time performance, but the turnaround process also affects whether the airline can make up time or whether delays create a domino effect across the system.
On-time performance is an area where American has room to improve. S carriers for on-time performance. So the airline recently studied its turnaround process to see how it could be more efficient. Taney said staff found a lengthy, two-page bureaucratic checklist that really wasn't practical. It simplified the steps into a "One Team, One Turn" process that focuses on six goals for every team involved in the turnaround.
The whole process takes about an hour, but it now has room for crews to prepare for possible obstacles in the process as well as identify places where it can make up for delays.
American Airlines gave us a chance to observe the new system turn in action. On Friday, May 10, we watched the transition between Flight from Tucson scheduled to arrive at a. The fleet chief holds a quick meeting with his crew working the ramp. The flight will arrive a few minutes ahead of schedule. Equipment is positioned, ready to get started as soon at the plane parks at the gate. Flight from Tucson taxis to Gate A2 and moves into position to park.
The plane is parked. Workers from baggage to fueling scramble into place. The jet bridge starts connecting to the Airbus The plane holds passengers and the flight is full. Even though Tucson is only about miles away, the airline says flights between the cities are often full, likely with passengers connecting to other flights. Hooking up the plane.
The plane's engines provide thrust and electrical power while in flight, but all passenger planes have a small jet engine which generates electricity when the plane is parked -- an Auxiliary Power Unit, or APU.
The APU is in the tail cone, and the pilots start it up to feed power to the plane's systems. But an APU uses costly fuel from the jet's tanks, so many airports provide a ground power system, or there's a generator cart parked at the gate.
Once the plane's access panel is opened and the connection is made with a heavy-duty cable and plug, the source of power is switched, and the engines are shut down. Connecting the air-con. The APU also energizes the plane's climate control systems, hopefully keeping the cabin at a nice temperature while parked. Like ground power, some airports provide conditioned air through large-diameter flexible ducts that plug into a port on the belly of the plane.
Or you might see a truck-mounted unit doing the job, with a duct snaking to the plane. Large, wide-body aircraft need two air connections to keep the cabin comfortable.
The passengers inside the plane have jumped up, and they're waiting impatiently in the aisle to get off -- right now. If the gate is equipped, a passenger boarding bridge is positioned by the forward left-side doors. Otherwise, truck- or cart-mounted stairs roll up, and passengers experience the excitement of walking down the stairs and onto the ramp, being able to look back at their aircraft.
Smaller regional jets and turboprops sit close to the ground, and have stairs built into the inside of the plane's doors, with just a couple of steps to the ramp. Unloading the luggage and cargo.
A: There are many variables involved in the timing of landing-gear extension. These include the airline's operating procedure, whether an instrument approach is necessary to land, the speed of the airplane, the altitude of the airplane and others.
As an example, the extra drag of the landing gear can increase the descent rate or help slow the airplane, so it may be extended earlier if the airplane has excess speed or altitude on approach. When the landing gear is extended, there is extra drag causing extra fuel burn. Pilots fly as fuel efficiently as possible.
Consequently they will leave the gear retracted as long as they can. Each flight is different, resulting in the differences you see in the extension of the landing gear. John Cox is a retired airline captain with U. In addition, when it comes to airplane speed, many turboprop planes can fly as fast as some jet airliners, although the average speed for this type of plane is roughly miles per hour. You can estimate this number if you know the number of miles between the two cities, but knowing that different planes have different speeds is also a good thing to keep in mind.
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