Originally Posted by
AerChungus
Would United pay for the fuel to perform a Part 91 repo from IAH-LNK? Genuinely don't know, but I don't see why whoever is footing the bill would willingly pick up a 12,000-15,000 lb fuel bill to send a 145 round trip from IAH-LNK. That's like $5k in fuel, per maintenance event, for no real reason. I can't claim to know more than you about the situation, but that sounds like a lot of money to spend on something that could have been done for no further cost in Albany after and before revenue 121 flights.
Just a guess on my part, but since maintenance is a required/fixed cost, the cost to get it to/from the maintenance event is probably baked into the accounting. Just a guess, like I said, but a logical one. C5 shouldn't have to pay for the fuel to move the airplane. They're just hired to operate it.
But maybe they do. Hell if I know.
I'll also say that reason and logic - at the levels the crews can see - don't often seem to factor into C5's decisionmaking.