Originally Posted by
Akamai
No, a lot of the parings are actually built with 30 minute turn times in them. Contractually they can be built as short as 22 minute turn times.
Yes, the planes are doing 10 plus flights per day. The pilots are sometimes doing 8 flights a day.
There are 18 flights tomorrow between HNL-OGG, which is on the low end of normal.
Pre- FAR 117, eight-landing days were pretty standard fare. Almost all based on 25 minute turns back in the day. The main thing that made that possible was the previous iteration of below-the-wing ops, which separated a dedicated ramp / baggage crew from a Line Service crew doing nothing but pushbacks all day long. Like clockwork. That and we got the load closeout and takeoff numbers during taxi, no waiting at the gate.
The channel approaches and the old “12 mile rule” on 250 below 10000 (it was in our FOM in the distant past) are a distant second to old-school Interisland ground ops as far as making 20 minute turns work on a regular basis. That is a distant and bygone world!
When Line Service was cut in the name of being “industry standard to save money”, there were many who saw that as a harbinger of a future sale. They were right!