The airport turnaround is a vital part of flight operations. Indeed,
it’s one big factor that will determine whether your flight takes off on time or is delayed.
Minimizing time at the gate is essential at busy airports and helps airlines keep aircraft flying.
No one makes money when an aircraft is sitting around! Not surprisingly, the turnaround of an
aircraft is a well-developed and meticulously orchestrated process for many airlines. In
today’s video, we take a closer look at all the steps involved in this impressive process.
Contrary to what you might expect, the turnaround process starts sometime before
the aircraft arrives. That’s because an arrival gate will be assigned for the incoming aircraft,
and a turnaround manager and team will prepare for the plane’s arrival.
Onboard, cabin crew may even start removing and storing items to speed up the turnaround. This
is especially the case with the fast turnaround common with short-haul and low-cost airlines.
After landing, pilots will taxi into their assigned gate,
lineup, and run arrival and shutdown checks. After disarming slides, cabin crew will
prepare and open doors, and assist passengers in exiting the aircraft.
The cabin crew that disembarking passengers leave may or may not be accompanying the plane
on its next flight. If the aircraft lands at an outstation, then the cabin crew likely will
be sticking with the plane. However, if an aircraft lands back at the airline’s hub,
there’s a much higher chance a crew change will occur.
In any event, the turnaround activities now largely pass to ground teams.
The process, of course, differs between airlines and airports, but
much is common. Heathrow airport provides a good summary of exactly what happens during a typical
British Airways turnaround on its website. Once it is safe to approach the aircraft (usually
signaled by flashing red lights on the fuselage), the ground crew will start the turnaround actions.
Chocks will be applied to the wheels, and external power may be connected to the aircraft-
a connection to what is known as a ground power unit - or GPU.
Alternatively, it may remain powered by the aircraft’s own APU - or Auxilliary power unit.
Many tasks take place in parallel during the turnaround. Whilst passengers start exiting the
cabin on one side, baggage will be unloaded from the other. Unloading will usually involve a ground
crew member jumping into the baggage hold to move baggage out. Smaller and lower-to-the-ground jets
might not need any special equipment while larger jets may utilize a belt-driven loader.
Cargo will begin offloading as well- if it was on the flight- of course.
This may be packed up in ULDs - or Unit loading devices. As IATA explains, an aircraft ULD
is a device for grouping and restraining cargo, mail and baggage for air transport. It is either
an aircraft container or a combination of an aircraft pallet and an aircraft pallet net.
One other thing that will need to be unloaded is sewage.
This involves emptying the toilet system using an external truck.
Cabin servicing will usually start as soon as the last passenger leaves (you will surely
have seen crews in bright fluorescent vests waiting on the jetbridge to get onboard).
This is outsourced to ground agencies, leaving the crew free to take a rest.
There is a lot to do, but it is a well-rehearsed process.
The cabin is quote-unquote ‘reset’ for the next flight, as rubbish and used items are removed.
Galleys, toilets, and seats cleaned- inflight reading material is placed back in the
appropriate place, and the aircraft prepared with service items for the next passengers.
This will range from clean blankets and pillows to sanitized and plastic-wrapped
headphones for inflight entertainment systems.
There are different levels of this, of course. Passengers have a much higher expectation of
a refreshed cabin on a long-haul flight than a low-cost short flight. But there is still work
to do. Even more so during the pandemic, where much more thorough cleaning is taking place,
with the use of hospital-grade disinfectants and even chemical fogging by some airlines.
The extent of cleaning makes a big difference in turnaround time and cost. Simple Flying took
an interesting look at British Airways' trial process in 2019 to cut cleaning down to just
rubbish removal on some short-haul flights. Interestingly, they found that no customer
complaints were put forward- but the airline still didn’t take the trial further at the time!
Another series of tasks prepare the aircraft for its next flight.
During a fast turnaround, much of this will start as soon as the aircraft reaches the gate.
Catering supplies and other items will be loaded.
This is what the catering trucks raising up to the right-hand side of the aircraft are doing.
Whether its GateGourmet, D’Nata, LSG SkyChefs or some other company,
this loading (and unloading), in fact, almost always takes place from the right-hand side.
Indeed, this is why the jet bridge connects to the left as an industry standard.
The aircraft will, of course, be refueled, with a refueling truck often rolling up to an
area below the aircraft’s wing. At some airports, fuel can be access directly from a ground source,
eliminating the need for a separate tanker truck. Since refueling can take some time,
the process will usually start soon after arrival.
Once lower-deck holds are emptied of arriving luggage,
the next set of baggage (and cargo) will be loaded into the hold. This is likely to have
been prepared well before the aircraft arrives, as much as possible. Containers are crucial for this,
enabling luggage and cargo to be pre-sorted and prepared for faster loading.
These are used on widebodies, but not always on narrowbody aircraft.
These are often manually loaded by hand. This can sometimes give passengers seated
at the right hand window an opportunity to see their own bags going into the hold-
something that is sure to provide a little extra peace of mind!
When the aircraft interior is prepared and crew are ready, passengers will board the aircraft.
The turnaround manager will hand over to the aircraft crew once tasks are complete
and numbers are confirmed.
Alongside the operational aspects of the turnaround,
checks are carried out on the aircraft. This is the pilots' responsibility, although engineering
staff could be involved if there are any issues to be checked from a previous flight.
This involves a visual exterior inspection of the aircraft - which is often completed by
the first officer. Here, the crewmember looks for obvious damage that could have occurred during the
previous flight, such as on the tires or engine housing, along with several standard checks.
There can be additions, too - such as this case recently when the Australian Civil Aviation Safety
Authority directed pilots to check pitot tubes for wasp blockings before flights!
Further onboard checklists are carried out before the aircraft is ready to seek clearance
to leave the gate and start its next flight. There is a lot to happen during a turnaround,
but it can be surprisingly quick when considering all the processes that take place.
This is thanks to the many different teams involved working nearly simultaneously to
get the aircraft ready for the next flight.
Heathrow Airports quotes 50 minutes for a standard British Airways short-haul turnaround. Meanwhile,
low-cost airlines such as Ryanair, Wizz Air, and Southwest Airlines claim times of 25-30 minutes.
An additional fun trivia fact is that in 2017 Latvian carrier airBaltic set a new world
record regarding aircraft turnaround. Indeed one of the airline’s brand new Airbus a220s
had a turnaround for its first commercial flight which took only 50 minutes after being delivered
brand new from Canada! We can only imagine how fresh that new-airplane-smell would have been!
On our website, Simple Flying in the past has taken a look at how a faster turnaround can
affect airline economics. In fact, shortening a turnaround by just eight minutes could allow
one more flight per day- leading to much more revenue for airlines over the course of a year.
At the same time, however, low-cost carriers with those very short times
can't do much more than they are already.
Airlines are always looking for ways to improve this. For example, we’ve seen many different
strategies to improve passenger boarding as it can be a bottleneck in getting turnaround times down.
While most airlines loading through a single door might board back to front (after seating premium
passengers and families), there are other methods that can speed things up. Low cost carriers may
opt to park at a remote stand and load and unload passengers using both the front and rear doors
with sets of stairs. Ryanair takes this a step further by having its 737s equipped with airstairs
of their own. Not only does this save the carrier in airport fees, but it also allows passengers
to offload faster instead of potentially waiting for portable stairs to be rolled up.
Technology too is playing a part in speeding up turnaround times.
Auckland Airport is using something called Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) to improve
turnaround by improving passenger flow and staff allocation across the airport. This results in
fewer opportunities for bottlenecks and delays at various points throughout the airport experience.
Have you witnessed any really fast aircraft turnarounds during your
time at an airport terminal? Was it a budget airline or another carrier?
Share your experiences by leaving a comment!