Aircraft diversions and follow on flights
 

I'm just curious - what do airlines tend to do with follow up flights when an aircraft diverts due to weather?

Do they pay to move the passengers to the airport the aircraft landed at or is it more usual for the aircraft to do a short positioning flight - assuming the weather has improved of course.

Cheers.

Depends on the situation, I would say.

I have diverted, for example, due to the destination being closed due snow, the passengers were then bussed onwards as it wasn't likely to re-open for a long time.
We then ferried an empty plane back to base.

I have also diverted to another airfield on the other side of the same city, pax stayed on, we then did a short flight over to original destination 30 mins later.

Lots of variables - why you diverted in the first place, wx, distance for pax etc

I've checked in at Newcastle and been bussed to Teesside because that's where the aircraft was.

I have been diverted Bournemouth vice LHR on BA shorthaul - guess the a/c positioned empty back to base. Brussels vice Antwerp on Sabena - no doubt the a/c stayed in BRU. Amsterdam vice BRU on Olympic. We had to wait so long for transport I suspect they bussed the outbound passengers up from BRU and used the same buses to get us back.

:ok: Yep, that sums it up, and I'll throw in Duty Hours left available...because if the crew runs out of hours it throws a complete spanner in the works.......

On one hand if you have got duty hours to spare and if you've ended up at an alternate a fair distance from the planned destination you'll probably sit it out on the ground and fly on to destination when/if you can ( and FWIW in some countries the authorities can make it very difficult, if not impossible, to disembark passengers at an unscheduled stop).

OTOH as ILT has said if you divert to a nearby alternate (e.g. different airport to planned destination, but serving the same city) the passengers may well be disembarked and taken overland to the destination airport, but even that sort of seemingly sensible plan can be over-ruled by the authorities.

Cheers for the answers folks. I did figure it was 'it depends' but it's good to get the facts from the people at the sharp end.

Mostly my curiosity has come about because of the recent bloody awful weather. I figure than London city will have seen more than it's fair share of diversions in the past month.

When I worked in airline ops, we scratched our heads and nuts, sucked pencils, drank beers, shoved earplugs in to drown the sound of ringing phones and moaning pax, and then decided what to do.

Seriously though, no hard and fast rules, other than minimise costs and passenger complaints, the two requirements being mutually exclusive. Then suicide is the answer.

Have only diverted twice; both occasions into Belfast Aldergrove when the City was below Cat 1 limits. The first time we went empty straight back to London (inbound passengers sent by bus to the city, return passengers waited for next flight) because the aircraft was needed in a hurry. The second time we waited for the return passengers to be bussed to us (aircraft not needed in a hurry).

Tableview wins the award for Best Answer Ever! Now I need to get a cloth to clear up the coke spill...... :D