1 late flight worth it?

[DennisN]

I have a question about scheduling a very short late flight (around midnight).  Is it worth the cost of slots, fuel and increased staff to keep the plane flying this late or best to leave it grounded overnight.  Just looking for some insight.  Thanks

[Flightman]

U make profit easily if you have right equipment and strategy. But I recommend if possible, fly same route allso at day.
Other option is keep the planes fly trought the night (longer flights) - Takeoff example ~ 22pm and landing ~ 6am...


Example one of my night routes:

00:25 - 01:30, EFHK - ESGG
02:05 - 05:00, ESGG - EFHK
Y: 69.4%   C: 75.0%
Y: 52.1%   C: 50.0%

[d2031k]

I have a question about scheduling a very short late flight (around midnight).  Is it worth the cost of slots, fuel and increased staff to keep the plane flying this late or best to leave it grounded overnight.  Just looking for some insight.  Thanks

This depends on the competition levels on the route, as a heavily saturated route will not be profitable at this time, but generally time on the ground is wasted time even in the depths of the night.

[JoeAcid69]

I have a question about scheduling a very short late flight (around midnight).  Is it worth the cost of slots, fuel and increased staff to keep the plane flying this late or best to leave it grounded overnight.  Just looking for some insight.  Thanks

Hi, its allways better to let the plane fly. It makes not so profit on a night flight, but better then nothing.
I have a Fokker70 flying from DFW to Houston on a night flight and it makes on 37 % income, but i changed the price for a ticket. The ticket price on the night flight is 10 % less then by day, so i get nearly the plane full.
You have to try it out and what you feel comfort withit. 

Joe

[knobbygb]

I have to agree that, generally, YES, it will be worth it but I also agree with the other posters:

1) Try to do this on routes where you have at least one other flight so the RI builds quickly and gives better load factors.

2) Don't do it on very saturated routes.  If you already offer around 100% of the demand then you'll simply be removing passengers from your other flights (mostly).  The flight might appear to make money but the others will all make a bit less.

DO add night flights:

Where it's not a very 'good' route anyway - i.e. if you may not even bother flying it in the daytime due to low demand.  There's no point 'wasting' a good route by flying it with a single flight with bad timings when you could make more money in the daytime.

Where your competitor has many flights on the route and you only have one or two.  You will reduce his load factor so he makes less money.  Remember, if you can afford it, it's often worth having flights that make little money, or even that are loss making, if it hurts your competition.


Try to make at least ONE leg of your night flight depart or arrive at a reasonable time.  For example, don't depart at 00:30 and return to base 04:30 - either try to be a little earlier or a little later, by shifting the other flights.  That way, at least one leg will make some money and you can think of the REALLY bad timed one as a ferry flight if you like.  It's usually possible to make good money on most night movements this way.

You'll never truly know how much you're making because so many of the costs (extra staff, lost pax from other flights, one off slot costs etc.) are not included in the quoted profit figures. even if you don't make much money, having more aircraft operating to more destinations, more route pairs will improve your stats and score - if that's the kind of thing that interests you.

[MattMarderosian]

I have my 2 Boeing 717-200's in the air nonstop day and night and i make a profit on all flights except 1 which i lose around $700 not a big deal.And i do short flights at night.