Originally Posted by
AirportPlanner1
On a similar note I was at STN today where a Swiss turned up. It was on the ground a good couple of hours so I guessed they were bringing the pax over, but no it seemed to me to depart empty. Surely it could have headed back immediately and not unnecessarily delayed later flights (if it was due to make any).
Perhaps the issue isn’t the capacity of SEN or the ease in which pax could theoretically be transferred, but one of waiting on ops decisions.
The Swiss couldn’t have made it back to LCY because it was too late. Perhaps BA were waiting to see if conditions improved. Perhaps the aircraft being displaced necessitated bringing in a new crew. Perhaps they couldn’t source a coach in good time. No point sending pax by train because it’s rail replacement.
Maybe Swiss ops were waiting on a window of opportunity to operate the aircraft to LCY for the return or maybe the crew on it were due to get off and night stop in LCY and there was a new crew waiting in LCY to take over so they would have had to get transport between airports. There are multiple reasons including ramp handling - do swiss have a handling contract at SEN - if not then everything needs prepayment or organised otherwise - there could have been a slot departure restriction - multitude of possible causes as to why it sat on the ground for a few hours and then operated back empty.