What happens to AF aircraft in Joburg during day ?

[BCS112]

Hi all,

I flew to Johannesburg last week with Air France, and it struck me that AF only has night flights both from and to Johannesburg.

This started me wondering what they do with the aircraft during the day ? I can hardly believe they just stand there for 12 hours doing nothing or do they ? This would mean that for the 2 daily flights (1x B777 and 1x A340) they need 4 aircraft...

Björn

[Matty J]

Although it would make more sense to have the A/C flying and earning money, you will probably find that they do sit there all day!

Many airlines do this for a number of reason, Slot Times, Airport Restrictions, Crew Hours etc etc. While in JFK a few years back waiting for my VS flight home i noticed many A/C that had been towed to remote stands once they had arrived, including another VS aircraft which arrived at lunchtime and left about 10pm. The inbound flight operating my return flight was delayed and we did'nt leave until 2am, i wish they could have just given us the A/C that was parked all day!!

I think VS park an aircraft in Jo'burg all day aswell, or at least they used to.

Regards.

[sbh684b]

Hi there BCS112.

coming from Joburg myself and worked at the airport for years I can tell u that all European carriers sit at Joburg Intl the whole day. some of them are 2 x air France, 2 x BA, Iberia, VS, Swiss and Luthansa. The reason they stay at the joburg is that they will not make it back to europe in time for connecting pax and airport curfues. Lets say they arrive between 8 to 10 in the moring and then 2 hours later have to depart, around 12, its still a 11 flight back to europe and all the pax will miss their connecting flight, its also kinda strange to arrive at an airport round about 22H-23H.

Once the aircraft arrive at joburg they are towed to the remote stand "Delta" or they even arrive their. Then the cleaners have the whole day to clean and dress the airport. Some of the planes gets washed and polished their asits so cheap. They also fuel the aircraft to Minimum sector fuel. If u ever seen Joburg airport between 19H to 21H u will understand that getting a bowser to fuel u for 1 hour is almost impossible, so thet only top up once the final ZFW comes. hope this helps. cheers

[BCS112]

Thanks for the info guys !

Amazing, but like you say it also makes some sense to have the aircraft sitting there for 12-13 hours... Apparently they still make money on this operation or I guess they wouldn't do it this way.

Björn

[wiggy]

To add that for many years BA used to shuttle their 747 s on to Gaborone or Durban, returning to JNB for the evening flight back to LHR (even Cape Town was a 747 shuttle in the distant past until that got a dedicated LHR-CPT service). Unfortunately the onward loads to DUR or GBE were not good enough to make the shuttles economically viable and so they were withdrawn a few years back.

[srs what?]

Whilst on the whole aircraft are only making money when they are airborne there are instances which people have already mentioned where it is the better or the only option to have an aircraft parked up for the best part of a day.

All is not lost though. With JNB as an example, I know VS often use the downtime for the aircraft to have belly or even full body wash as it makes good use of the time and is also cheaper down there.

[older_wiser]

I think you'll find that SAA do the same at LHR.
As all their flights are early am arrivals and PM departures meaning that they are on the ground at LHR for approx 12 hours