Originally Posted by
Peter47
A departure from CPT at 07:30 would arrive at LHR at about 19:20 so would be in time to form another flight....There is nothing worse than arriving at 05:30 after a 13 hour flight.
I'm a bit lost here. For an 0730 departure from Cape Town, the inbound would need to arrive at 0530. This appears to be before the airport terminal opens. Turning round such a long haul flight, particularly with the freight volumes you get on this sector, in less than 2 hours is not practical. And then arriving back at Heathrow it's another tight turnround after an all-day flight to get away before the Heathrow night restriction sets in. For 1920 arrivals, it's common to find the holding stacks are pretty full.
But does the point about nothing being worse than an 0530 arrival invalidate this ?
The departing passengers at Cape Town would look to be arriving at the airport at about 0600, which is probably before local public transport starts, would require leaving hotels before breakfast is served, and certainly impractical for anyone coming from beyond the immediate vicinity. It works for domestic flights, where people can handle this, but not for a major intercontinental flight.