B737900ER..
With respect to the skipper he did announce on landing he had been in touch with operations and that onward travel was being organised and we would be told by the Swissport agents in the terminal... As I mentioned before, I saw one rep who said he had been told nothing and knew of no buses etc and he suggested we make our own way home... given that it was 0100 in the morning I didnt hold out much hope for 15 odd coaches turning up so grabbed the taxi... i have no idea if a plan was put into place ,but just thought that from the time the skipper decided to divert to the time we got in the terminal was probaly a good 2 hours I did think the lack of any info was a bit poor.
Piltdown Man
Thanks for your input... I think I probaly used the wrong term in saying that the margins are worrying .... I accept the margins are dictated and upheld to by the Law makers et al but I suppose not fully understanding how these companies work out their fuel loads it is surprising to find how little margins are with regards the decison our skipper had to make considering he was facing a 20 min delay.
If I read you right another £800 worth of fuel may have saved the day?
re the discretion time as soon as we landed the skipper explained he was already in his discretionary time hence his announcement we had 10 mins to refuel and push back if we were going to make it back to gatwick which I doubted was ever the plan. I guess the run to the red sea and back is pretty close to the bone with permissable hours.
I still can't fathom what the cost of carrying the extra fuel would be... If he landed on time with no hold would the extra fuel not be available for the next flight or is it the cost of carrying said fuel, i.e a few tonnes, that comes into the equation as it takes more fuel to carry the extra weight?
Am I right in summizing if we had been given a clearance ahead of others then those guys may well have found themselves in an equally tight spot?
Gents... Thanks for the input and , for me ( someone who plys his trade on vintage aircraft) its been very interesting and enlightening so far...