Originally Posted by
Pinkman
if you are going to have a 17 hour ULH flight that turns into a 37 hour journey (40 hours + door to door) you’re going to have to get sharper with contingency planning; and from the replies it looks like spares inventory and crewing need to be looked at too. It’s been interesting- thanks everyone.
To reiterate the point megan made: how much are
you prepared to pay for this increased inventory and crewing?
Providing dedicated standby crews at outstations, by perhaps increasing slip durations beyond the required minimum so you have more than minimum crew on site, will cause the bean counters will have apoplexy (due increased the increased fleet pilot and cabin crew establishment you'll need to cover it, plus hotel costs, plus allowances, plus plus etc...). They'll look at cost v benefit and say "no thanks, we'll accept the odd delay".
As others have said there's nothing really extra extra special about the QF ULH LHR-PER flight that hasn't applied to many a Long Haul sector over the years...there's no magic solution if things or people go T U, and regardless of contingency plans, be they sharp or blunt, you sometimes can't avoid substantial delays.