Positioning crew to remote destinations
Hello,
This question arose from reading a thread on the Flight Deck forum. It said that an airline needed to use a replacement crew to operate the return sector from a remote destination. The reasons involved are not relevant to this thread: I simply want to understand how this is operationally possible.
Assuming:
- that this is not a base, so there are no stand-by crew;
- that the crew need to fly / be flown to the point of departure and you can't drive them there;
- that the airline has no imminent flights to the point of departure before the sector is to be operated (as I realise that's the easiest way to position crew)
...how does the airline get them there?
Presumably, they would not operate an empty aircraft, as you'd then have one aircraft too many and no one to bring it back?!
Are the crew 'chartered' out on a smaller aircraft? Are you reliant on another airline having a flight that the crew can fly on?
I realise there are flight time limitation issues and of course substantial delays. I'm not seeking an explanation of them here!