Differences in the Turn-Around Time

[ag321796]

I always left the Turn-Around time (TAR) longer than the estimated delay of 1%, I usually put at least double the time of the aircraft.

An example:
Fokker 100 has TAR 35min
With 60 minutes of TAR the estimate of delay is ~1%
In this case I usually leave 70-80min of Turn-around and space between flights

And even leaving a much longer time than the estimate of ~1%, my delays vary from 1 to 3%.

My question is:

Is there difference in letting the TAR longer than the estimated time required for the delay be below 1%?

[Zombie Slayer]

As far as I know, there is no benefit in leaving more time than what will give you ~1% chance of delay. There are other factors that come into play when determining delays, such as seasonal weather conditions at the departure airport, aircraft condition, staff morale, and congestion at the airport. You can obviously control staff morale by paying your people and making sure you have 100% of the required staffing and control aircraft condition by ensuring all scheduled checks are done, but weather and congestion delays are out of your control.

No matter how hard you try, you will have a very hard time obtaining anything greater than ~95% on time performance unless you are operating from some tiny airport with no traffic that sees 350 days of sunshine a year. I always shoot for 90%, leaving the required time for a 1% chance of delay unless shortening that time somewhat will allow an extra flight.

Don

[Kadachiman]

I don't think there is any 'possible less delays' benefit in leaving additional time above of the <1% recommended for turn-arounds.

There may be a strategic reason for doing so though....e.g. you have F27's that you know you will replace with BAC 111's when available...therefore you 'pre-allocate' the BAC111 turn-around time rather than the F27's as your standard.

[ag321796]

Thanks guys.

I began to leave the turn-around of my Airbus in ~ 1% and so far it seems that there is no difference, so I'm making more time for other flights.

[swiftus27]

Imagine it this way, if flight A is 10 minutes late, flight B may be 15 minutes late,  C 20....... by the time flight S comes around, they will need to cancel the flight in order to get back on schedule.