Scheduling 1 Plane 6 Days

[mandystella]

Hi,

Can anyone show me on an excel spreadsheet how to schedule a long range route from Bogota (SKBO) to Milano (LIMC)? I have been finding it difficult.

Thanks.

[Andre090904]

Welcome to the forums,

For such long flights you would ideally schedule a "7-day-schedule". Just read this thread: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,71633.0.html

He explains it better and in more detail.

[groundbum2]

7 day scheduling is best, but if you want 1 plane to go A->B 6 days, as it just works, this is what I do.

Saturday is the lowest travel day, so I want B check on a Saturday. So I start the first flight at 0500 Sunday. Then cerate flight like next day, and it goes at, say 0700. Same again, 0900 Monday until late on Friday, and B check Sunday.

Obviously this isn't as optimal as 7 day scheduling, the odds are some departures at A or B will leave at unsocial hours.

Simon

[mandystella]

I have only been able to get 5 days in my schedule.

[Andre090904]

Depends on the route distance and the aircraft speed/turnaround time of course. Very long routes are just...too long to have them flown everyday (or in this case even on 6 days).

[Tha_Ape]

I have only been able to get 5 days in my schedule.

On one plane, sure, that's normal, can't fit 30hrs in 24 hrs.
Check the link provided above, it's called 7-day scheduling

[Talentz]

Umm.. LIME has no international LH... so would be pointless to fly it?


But if this isn't a troll question. Here is how you would go about scheduling a single aircraft for 6 Days. (5 in this case)

First, this way of scheduling is limited by distance and speed. Each aircraft flies at different speeds so the results will not all be same all. For this example, I am using an MD-11 with a .82 cruise speed. Thus, I can only fly so far in a 24hr period.

So select your destination:


We are flying BOG-FRA.

Next, you select the starting day of the week and time. Note that FRA is closed between 2300-0500. So flight times must be adjusted to match.



Once you get the times correct, create the route and select "Create another route like this for the next day."



From here, its gets a bit harder to schedule. First, you want to depart without wasting too much time. So the depart time is usually: Arrival time + turn-time = Next depart time. In this case: 1325 +2:15 = 1540 departure time



Once you've selected the time confirm and select the Create another route .... link, as you did before

Again, you want to add your arrival time + turn time to get your next departure time. The aircraft arrives at 1820 +2:15 turn = 2035 depart time for the next day.

However on the 4th day, we run into a problem. The arrive time is very late and the next departure time puts the aircraft at FRA when it is closed. So, to deal with this, you can schedule your "A check" inbetween the dead time your aircraft can't fly into FRA anyway. So the aircraft arrives at 2315. Add the turn time + 5 hrs for an A check = 0630. Then we run into another problem, being that FRA is still closed if we try to depart at 0630. Thus, we know that departing at 1045 gets us to FRA at 0500, so for the next day, we set the depart time at 1045 and move on to the next day. Which we already know what the arr/dep time is because we did it earlier.



Now, with 5 routes and unable to schedule more because there is only 24hrs in a day, we go to schedule are routes.



Lastly, we have to schedule Maint (A+B). Normally, you would put your A check in the spot we created in the schedule, however, since there is alot of dead time in this routing, its best to select the biggest gap that exists. If a B check overlaps a scheduled route, the route is CLXD. So when flying routes that are greater then 24hrs, assume that a B check will CXLD one route each month when using this type of scheduling.




Once you have everything scheduled, it will look like this one the route planning screen:




There you have it. That would be how you schedule an aircraft for less then once daily ( 6x weekly or in this case, 5x weekly)

Its important to note that scheduling less then once daily is less efficient as you lose days. (6x, 5x, 4x weekly, ect)

Only in extreme circumstances you would consider flying a route 4x or less weekly. It is not a very profitable use of the aircraft's flight time.

Otherwise, stick with once daily if possible. 6x weekly if needed. 5x weekly if its your only option.

I hope this helps.


Talentz

[knobbygb]

The above post is very detailed and informative.  If you want to be more efficent, the next stage of your learning process would be a somewhat halfway-house approach, between this and 7-day scheduling - what you might call "route pairing".

In that example, the BOG-FRA-BOG rotation takes 28hr55 (including the turnaround once back at home base). So what you would IDEALLY do is find a second route that is somewhat shorter (but still 15 to 18 hours) and alternate them across two aircraft. The first aircraft flies the longer route four times per week and the shorter route three times and the second covers the other routes. This would allow you to fly both routes 7x weekly and still have at least 5hrs free for each one to have a B-Check.  To be most efficient you might still have to adjust the daily times for each route by a few hours.  You'd have one aircraft flying almost all the time (less 5 hours) and the second with maybe 15 to 20 hours down-time, which is more efficient than this example (but more complicated of course).

Of course, geography complicates this as the range of departure and arrival times for both routes must fit well to allow all routes to arrive and depart when airports are open and not force any return flights into the 'wrong' day. You might be limited with options at BOG but this works very well at busy airports.

Sorry, I can't make any examples right now as I'm just starting in a new world with only short-haul.  A good example from my last world was pairing an IST-MIA (approx. 31hrs) with an IST-FRA (13hrs) and in the past I have paired trans-pacific flights from LAX (30hrs) with flights to the Caribbean or East coast.  TIP: If the two flights are in opposite directions from your base, it often gives a wider choice of departure and arrival windows. TIP2: If you work it so that your "10 to 20 hours downtime" on aircraft 2 is on a Friday (busiest day) you might even be able to have an extra flight on one of your busiest short-haul routes.