Ferry/positioning flight question

[SpringHeeledJack]

I was watching some interesting documentary last night around midnight when the silence was interrupted by a low-ish flying aircraft not on any normal flight path. Intrigued, I checked on one of the SBS websites and it turned out to be an aircraft positioning between LGW and LTN. The flight took all of 15mins approx.

This got me wondering about how crews would be rostered and how much duty time would be logged and so on. Obviously not a normal 'day' , would the crew be given a normal 'day' of duty even if the time was much less, or would they then either fly another aircraft elsewhere if needed or just be bussed back to their base airport ?



SHJ

[EMB-145LR]

At my company positioning flights are usually operated by crews who are on standby. We log however long the flight takes and the duty period is usually the duration of the standby period, unless the positioning duty period is longer.

[Sky Wave]

Duty Time will equal time on standby prior to call out, time to get to the airport (perhaps 90 minutes), standard 1 hour report for briefing, getting flight plans and getting out to aircraft, 10 mins taxy, 25 mins flight, 5 minutes taxy to stand, 30 mins securing the aircraft and finding your way out of an unfamiliar airport and then 90 minutes in a taxi returning to LGW. Things can also get held up because fuelers, dispatchers and push back crew are not interested in positioning flights and you're way down their priority list.

So not that short of duty.

Sw

[SpringHeeledJack]

Thanks for the replies and explanations, good to see the reality is a bit more orderly than my attempts to work out a solution



SHJ

[Burnie5204]

Also, certainly from my experience. Many positioners will make best use of crew hours and position in, turn around, load up pax and operate out before returning and positioning back out in order to save paying 3 crews to position the airframe, operate the schedule and position back to home base at the end of Ops.

[avturboy]

Originally Posted by Sky Wave

Things can also get held up because fuelers, dispatchers and push back crew are not interested in positioning flights and you're way down their priority list.

Slightly off topic ... I would take issue with "not interested" ... all organisations have to run as efficiently as possible these days, that means not having a people hanging around with nothing to do and waiting for a call.

As a service provider the organisation I work for operates staffing levels which are well planned to provide excellent service to any Airline customer who is operating to the their schedule (there's no other efficient way to operate really). We can only plan for what we are told about.

Therefore positioning flights, delayed inbounds, aircraft that go tech, etc. all present a demand which needs to be dealt with but which is not planned for.

These unplanned for demands are met as quickly as possible without compromising the service already planned for all on-time departures.