After Diversion empty takeoff to previous airport...Why?
 

Hi all...please accept my apologies if this was questioned and answered here before, however the search tool didn't give me what i needed.
Since some years ago this practice was mainly used by Ryanair but lately other LCCs use this option.
So any member here kind explain me.
Whats the reason when for example ( I give here personal examples at Faro, Portugal with for instance Ryanair), a ryr flt inbound to Faro needs to divert to Seville, Malaga or Lisbon, they only stay there for about one hour or less, and they always send pax by road bus, when the respective plane returns empty/ferry to Faro with only crew...?
Are not the leasing of a bus more expensive?
If the plane it's returning to the first airport what's the reason and sense of this?
When vice versa occurs it's also the same, regarding the airports in cause.
I fully understand when airline ops demands plane to take off to a different airport of the pre-planned destination, no other option would be given than alternate transport, but when, and I must emphasize, *When*, aircraft is returning empty to the same planned destination airport, why the hell they sent pax by bus instead of simply take them on a empty plane having the the very same destination of one leased bus or more buses?
It doesn't make me any sense at all, IMHO...
Peace ✌️

One obvious answer is that, at the time the diversion occurs - whether technical, weather-related or whatever - there is often no way to predict how long the situation that prompted the diversion will last, so it's only prudent to make alternative arrangements to get the pax to their planned destination by alternative means.

If after diverting, the weather then suddenly clears at the original destination, or the technical problem turns out to have a quick fix, well the bags have already been offloaded and ground transport ball is already rolling ...

Even more stupid, I wanted to fly Luton to Edinburgh, however the Edinburgh flight was cancelled and was put on the Glasgow flight with a promise to ground transport back to Edinburgh....so far so good. However after take off the weather at Glasgow meant a Diversion to Edinburgh, and despite pleading with the ground staff, was bussed to Glasgow to catch the ground transport BACK to Edinburgh... Don't think it was even the same bus company

Surely you could have done a disappearing act whist at EDI between deplaning and getting to the bus?

Sounds like a kidnap situation to me. :O

Unfortunately they took cases and passengers on the Glasgow bus airside at Edinburgh and we collected it kerbside at Glasgow. Had I been hand luggage I would have tried to snuck off

Wow...you beat me with that one :}

Tks for all your answers, peace, JF.

If you had been HBO you would not* have had to "try" to sneak off, simply they would have had no means to try to stop you. There are laws* against kidnap and false imprisonment!

* assuming Scots law is fundamentally similar to English and Welsh law in this respect; I suppose it is.

A guess to answer the OP.
After diverting there may have been sufficient fuel remaining for a ferry flight but not a full aircraft. Ryanair are noted for being frugal so it's less expensive than refueling etc.

Here is another POSSIBLE reason. Airlines schedule their aircraft with great care. The low-cost carriers even more. A plane diverts and unloads passengers so they can be bussed to the actual destination. Aircraft departs empty and when it lands at the next airport it is pretty well on schedule.

The alternative is land at the diversion and wait until it's possible to continue to destination. The longer it waits the later all the flights this plane is due to operate become. If the delay is long the plane may not be able to complete the program for the day because of crew limitations or airport curfews.

No, airlines don't keep spare aircraft for situations like this.

I am reminded of the time I was waiting to meet somebody from a Thompson flight at Norwich. It had been raining heavily and the runway was saturated. The inbound Captain, after taking a look, refused to land at his prevailing weight and diverted to Stansted where the passengers were deplaned and put on coaches to take them to Norwich. The aircraft then departed for Norwich empty and landed safely ready for the new crew to take it on its next sector.

Dave R has it right. I was once inbound to Cork (as flight crew) when fog prevented us from landing. After holding for an hour, with no improvement, we diverted to Shannon where we offloaded all the pax onto buses. I was just settling down with a coffee for a long wait when ops phoned to say the Cork weather had improved and could we please get over there pronto. Well it's not a long flight in a 737, so we landed in a cavok Cork long before our pax got there...

Crew duty limitations and keeping the airframe on schedule are the likely reasons.
Adding a sector is usually impossible due to duty hours on 4 sector days and often on longer 2 sector days.