Typical B744 deboarding and loading times

[Richard McDonald Woods]

Airport Enhancement Services requires the specification of Deboarding, Catering, Cleaning, Fuel loading and Boarding typical mins and max times in minutes and seconds. AES then uses a random value between the two specified.

I have at present set :

-   Deboarding to a min of 10:00 mins and a max of 15:00 mins
-   Catering to a min of 12:00 mins and a max of 20:00 mins
-   Cleaning to a min of 15:00 mins and a max of 30:00 mins
-   Fuel loading to a min of 20:00 mins and a max of 30:00 mins
-   Boarding to a min of 20:00 mins and a max of 30:00 mins.

Anybody have any more realistic settings to suggest?

[John H Watson]

Think of a number, any number

- Deboarding to a min of 10:00 mins and a max of 15:00 mins

Richard, this could easily blow out to 30 minutes with wheelchair-bound passengers/elderly assisted passengers and passengers with children dawdling behind. Special Olympic days don't come around too often, but you can see lots and lots of wheelchairs on these flights and long deboarding times.

- Catering to a min of 12:00 mins and a max of 20:00 mins

Lots of factors here. 12 minutes is very ambitious, unless it's a ferry flight with only 2 or 3 crew members The catering staff may be competing with the cleaners and cabin crew for floor space. Also, the Upper Deck cart lift/elevator is not very fast (one cart at a time). There are often additional small boxes to go upstairs (2 or so at a time), too. Remember that the aircraft has be un-catered as well as catered. The two cannot mix (sometimes because of quarantine restrictions)

- Cleaning to a min of 15:00 mins and a max of 30:00 mins

Possibly, but I wouldn't expect the cleaning to be particularly thorough.
The cleaning is done in waves. Rubbish is removed seat pockets and seats. The meal trays are cleaned and the seats inspected for cleanliness (sometimes seat covers and/or seatbelts have to be replaced if the passenger has had an accident ). The seatbelts are then repositioned to look tidy. The vacuumers follow closely behind them. The lavatories also have to be cleaned. The headrest refitters and toilet amenity restockers work try to work around these people.
 

- Fuel loading to a min of 20:00 mins and a max of 30:00 mins

This might be optimistic on long oceanic routes (especially for an ER with an Aux Tank to fill). With two refuelling trucks given the task of filling up exactly half each, you might do it, but more often than not, the truck on the right wing will disconnect first and leave the truck on the left to pump the final fuel. Sometimes the final fuel value is not known to the refuellers/engineers until the pilots walk on board (25~35 minutes before departure). Note that some airlines don't allow pax to board while the aircraft is being refuelled (this can slow things up a bit if the co-ordination/timing is not so precise).

Boarding to a min of 20:00 mins and a max of 30:00 mins.

This seems fair, especially if the passengers in the aft zones are loaded first and more than one door is being used for loading. 35 minutes might be better to play it safe. Sometimes passengers don't realise that there are 200 people queuing up behind them as they block the aisle, trying to force oversize bags into the overhead lockers  

Is your message suggesting a 747-400 can be turned around in, say, 1:15, no matter what the circumstances(?). I can't say I've seen this happen at a main base turnaround (as opposed to a transit stop on the way to somewhere)

Regards
JHW

[Avi]

Hi,

Check this Boeing's web page: http://www.boeing.com/commercial/airports/747.htm
You will find some interesting Turnaround timings in chapter 5 for each category.

[torrence]

Interesting topic generally.  I suspect it is also affected by cultural factors.  I'm sure that our US flights must have longer than average loading and deboarding due to pax trying to stuff half their worldly possessions in the overheads.  I read a article a while ago that Airbus studied ANA operations to see if they could learn how to board/deboard the A380 more efficiently - ANA flys fully loaded 747 up and down Japan's home islands on short hauls that are more like regional flights in the US and apparently has very short times to load and unload passengers.  I understand they concluded that they couldn't get US or European passengers to cooperate as efficiently in getting in and out of their seats as the Japanese do   .

Cheers,
Torrence

[Phil Bunch]

Interesting topic generally.  I suspect it is also affected by cultural factors.  I'm sure that our US flights must have longer than average loading and deboarding due to pax trying to stuff half their worldly possessions in the overheads.  I read a article a while ago that Airbus studied ANA operations to see if they could learn how to board/deboard the A380 more efficiently - ANA flys fully loaded 747 up and down Japan's home islands on short hauls that are more like regional flights in the US and apparently has very short times to load and unload passengers.  I understand they concluded that they couldn't get US or European passengers to cooperate as efficiently in getting in and out of their seats as the Japanese do   .

Cheers,
Torrence

I have to agree about the speed and "efficiency" of Japanese airliner boarding, and believe it extends to other parts of Asia too, based on my admittedly limited experiences.  Boarding an airliner in that region of the world sometimes feels like trying to board a subway/tube train in NY or London!

[OKD]

Airport Enhancement Services requires the specification of Deboarding, Catering, Cleaning, Fuel loading and Boarding typical mins and max times in minutes and seconds. AES then uses a random value between the two specified.

I have at present set :

-   Deboarding to a min of 10:00 mins and a max of 15:00 mins
-   Catering to a min of 12:00 mins and a max of 20:00 mins
-   Cleaning to a min of 15:00 mins and a max of 30:00 mins
-   Fuel loading to a min of 20:00 mins and a max of 30:00 mins
-   Boarding to a min of 20:00 mins and a max of 30:00 mins.

Anybody have any more realistic settings to suggest?

I think you also take into consideration of the US cities especially.  Prob you also need to go back to a one of the topics where JH commented or experienced that by the time of the boarding call, the ac was nowhere to be seen at the parking bay / gate. So domino effects will affect other services to be performed on the a/c.

Also under one of the topic (something about running of an APU while an a/c is being prepared for flight), JHW also commented on the time to prepare a typical flight from the moment fltdeck crew arrive to push back, and that comment was very informative indeed.

Oh yeah, JH also commented his experience about the union refused to allowe its workers to push the a/c back "in the rain", and that was at KORD if I remember correctly!! So this depends on how you set your weather... !!:mrgreen: