Originally Posted by
AndrewH52
Actually the average seating capacity is closer to 210 per aircraft, rather than 180. Don’t forget out of the c.90 aircraft based, 20 are wide bodies and a further 20 are A321/B757s.
By my reckoning the based capacity equates to over 19,000 seats - over half of this at T1. With declared terminal capacity of 3000 departing pax per hour at T1, the first wave needs to stretch over almost 3.5 hours. This also doesn’t factor in night stopping LH flights.
Of course this assumes every seat is taken, but as we approach peak summer the likelihood is they pretty much will be.
Got to remember that most of the based wide-bodies are on long-haul and do not depart in the first wave, before 0900. They behave almost the same as non-based long-haul, i.e. in the air overnight, arriving 0530 onwards and not departing until after 0900. Long-haul departures peak between 1000 and 1300, with a small East-bound wave in the evening.