Operations: Airline Flight Scheduling
Good day everyone and it is my first post here in PPrune.
I am a young airline professional working in the ground operations department of a local LCC here in Japan. One of my current tasks include daily oversight of ground handling in our base and outstations as well. The task involves a lot of last minute flight changes assigned to the aircraft which results into a lot of arrangements required (good thing we operate one aircraft type only).
Since I am very curious person, I am interested to know how it goes in other airlines. Doesn't have to mention the airline if it is confidential but would be glad to know if so as well. I think my question shall fit to other LCCs but FSCs insight would also help
1. In a current day, how often does an aircraft involve in flight change?
2. If the first set of flights are running late, is it automatically planned to swap it with another aircraft to save delay? How often and what conditions merit the change?
3. Is the aircraft planned for International flights the whole day and Domestic v.v or mixed? How does the aircraft handled during domestic<> international? Here it involves a lot of jurassic faxing to different departments in case we change from I to D v.v., but customs usually do not inspect our aircraft in between.
4. Does onboard fueling a normal process to your airline? In case of Japan, onboard fueling is normally prohibited unless exceptional cases such as diversions, tech landing. It puts pressure to local LCCs operating in tight turnarounds.
Appreciate your inputs!