SWA TPA From United States of America, joined Aug 2001, 1559 posts, RR: 43 Posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 10407 times:
Ok, so I was working the gate the other day and bored out of my mind. I decided to follow one our 737-300's around the country, via our intranet/ OTIS, to see where he went.
Ending his day in BWI @ 11:50pm.
As for the loads, he could potentially have carried 1233 pax if he was full on every flight. His actual total bookings for that day ended up @ 880 pax.
Wow, you just dont realize how many butts have been in those seats before you throughout the day
B747-437B From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 10312 times:
Two years ago I was doing a utility study of various airlines for a client and came up with the following month (January 2002) in the life of N770SA, a 737-700 for Southwest.
767-332ER From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 2030 posts, RR: 12 Reply 3, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 10093 times:
And there again, figure the regular life-span of these machines is about 25-30 yrs...goes to show you what wonderful machines airplanes really are...of course, like everything, proper maintenance has to be performed.
Regards
Twinjets...if one fails, work the other one twice as hard!!!
SWA TPA From United States of America, joined Aug 2001, 1559 posts, RR: 43 Reply 4, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 10016 times:
I was wondering about the crew changes myself. I dont really have access to that. Maybe OPNLguy would know that one. This was N357 (I am pretty certain) just this past Thursday.
Okie From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 2378 posts, RR: 3 Reply 5, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 9926 times:
That is a lot of cycles on the airframe per day. While I know you can't keep that pace up forever due to scheduling and Mx it generates some interesting numbers to play with in anycase.
9 cycles per day X 7 days = 63 cycles per week
63 cycles per week X 52 weeks = 3,276 cycles per year
3,276 cycles per year X 15 years = 49,140 cycles
I think the airframes are either near the end of their life or major Mx after about 50,000 cycles
ATAIndy From United States of America, joined May 2004, 579 posts, RR: 4 Reply 6, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 9922 times:
I think it's simply amazing how many cycles those birds take each day, and how many miles they fly in a day. It just goes to show you how the system can bottleneck with just one delay.
InnocuousFox From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 2805 posts, RR: 16 Reply 7, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 9819 times:
Using data from the 1st Quarter of 2002 and thd 737-300/700 aircraft. First number is block hours per day, 2nd is flight hours per day:
F9 - 10.9 - 9.5
WN - 10.8 - 9.2
US - 8.8 - 6.7
CO - 8.0 - 6.6
HP - 7.5 - 6.1
DL - 7.4 - 6.0
UA - 6.9 - 5.6
Also, notice the difference in the ratio between block hours and flight hours. WNs is 87% flight hours. US is 76%. Talk about some serious utilization for Southwest!
Dave Mark - Intrinsic Algorithm - Reducing the world to mathematical equations!
Pe@rson From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 18847 posts, RR: 54 Reply 8, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 9678 times:
"And there again, figure the regular life-span of these machines is about 25-30 yrs...goes to show you what wonderful machines airplanes really are...of course, like everything, proper maintenance has to be performed."
Thankfully maintenance at WN is very important indeed, evidenced by the sheer determination of all its maintenance staff and also by the fact that, on average, there will be 1 fatal crash per 2 million flights in the USA, but WN has flown over 9 million flights and has not had a fatal crash.
"Everyone writing for the Telegraph knows that the way to grab eyeballs is with Ryanair and/or sex."
SpeedbirdHeavy From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 427 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 9585 times:
This truly is one of the most interesting threads I've seen in this forum in quite awhile. I have often wondered about the daily travels of any aircraft. When I get off a plane, I always make it a point to look behind me to see where that aircraft is going next as I exit the gate area.
I'm sure if you look harder, you'll find even more amazing mileages covered. That particular 737 happened to stay in just a couple of sectors of the US. I'm sure there are planes that start flying around the East coast and eventually wind up on the West coast. All in a 16 hour span! Amazing!
I will never know how dispatchers keep track of all the aircraft either.
InnocuousFox From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 2805 posts, RR: 16 Reply 12, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 9316 times:
"I will never know how dispatchers keep track of all the aircraft either."
Computers.
"So, this was just a single WN B737... Imagine all the work to coordinate the whole fleet"
Actually, it's not that tough to assign tail numbers to flights. As part of the artificial intelligence routines for our game, I had to do exactly that. The AI can take the fleet's current locations and aircraft types and match it with the schedule very easily. It will do it for hundreds of aircraft on thousands of daily flights in only a few moments. (Creating a balanced schedule was actually the hard part!)
Parts of the same routine can be used to recalculate assignments when there is a delay. It will find the most efficient way of reassigning aircraft to get the maximum utilization with the mimimum delay. If I can do it for a game, I'm quite sure the airlines have systems that do the same thing! It's not like the dispatchers are sitting there with index cards and a cork board!
Dave Mark - Intrinsic Algorithm - Reducing the world to mathematical equations!
OPNLguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 13, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 9283 times:
>>>I will never know how dispatchers keep track of all the aircraft either.
Computers, my boy, computers...
There's an article in the May/June issue of Airliners on dispatchers written by a couple of cohorts at Delta, and in the pix you can see a little bit of their computers.
In years past, in the "Dark Ages" before computers, most airline dispatch offices used a proverbial "big board" with horizontally-oriented thin strips of posterboard cut to the length of the trip length. At common points, "swaps" could be made to change an aircraft's rount for whatever reason. At one airline I worked for, we actually had three of these big boards, the previous day's operation on the left, the current day in the middle, and the next day on the right. At the end of the day, all the boards (on rollers) would get moved to the left, except for the far left one which would get moved all the way to the right.
SWA TPA From United States of America, joined Aug 2001, 1559 posts, RR: 43 Reply 15, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 9079 times:
Yesterday I followed our flight 616 that starts out in TPA and goes to LAS. From there it ends up criss crossing the country to BWI and I believe back. It also makes a number of short hops around the west coast. I wish I could find the info I wrote down on it. It really impressed me.
Those planes really WORK during the day.
WidgetBoi From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 1432 posts, RR: 21 Reply 16, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 9080 times:
This may be a stupid question, but how much time does Southwest provide to turn an aircraft?
WidgetBoi From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 1432 posts, RR: 21 Reply 18, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 9047 times:
SpeedbirdHeavy From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 427 posts, RR: 0 Reply 19, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 8846 times:
Actually, it's not that tough to assign tail numbers to flights. As part of the artificial intelligence routines for our game, I had to do exactly that. The AI can take the fleet's current locations and aircraft types and match it with the schedule very easily. It will do it for hundreds of aircraft on thousands of daily flights in only a few moments
Ah yes, but then there are the "unforeseen circumstances" that can throw things out of whack. Like broken equipment and weather delays and such. When an aircraft needs to go out of service for some reason, that must really cause some headaches.
OPNLguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 20, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 8783 times:
>>>Ah yes, but then there are the "unforeseen circumstances" that can throw things out of whack.
None the least of which is when all the last flights of the night are inbound to a MX base, and then said MX base goes below minimums.. Huge pain in the arse...
Atrude777 From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 5613 posts, RR: 54 Reply 21, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 8694 times:
Ahhhh yes I remember doinmg that.
I was tracking a WN flght after I got off. it started the day in LAS, and flew to PHX, where it picked me up to take me home to STL...so then I got off and was curious to see where else it went..
LAS-PHX-STL-MDW-JAX-MCO-FLL-MSY-HOU-DAL That was in one day.
Then the next day it flew...
DAL-OKC-MCI-MDW-CLE-STL-HOU-DAL this was shorter IM guessing, and then after that I lost track....
Alex
Good things come to those who wait, better things come to those who go AFTER it!
Spyglass From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 105 posts, RR: 1 Reply 23, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 8395 times:
Tell ya what....this is one of the best, most informative threads I've seen here in a long time...everyone contributed a little and some asked the good questions for it to be really interesting. None of the infantile Airbus vs Boeing playground rock-throwing or I-hate-Xairline-orYairline...kudos to all contributors and hope your examples rub off on the bellyachers who seem to infest this site
chow
Ozzie From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 338 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (9 years 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 8362 times:
I have experienced this myself. I have been onboard a WN 737 when the FAs will say something like "For those of you continuing on to *** and then *** and then ***.
At least they get good use out of there airplanes, and not one crash yet.
25 Atrude777: It truly is amazing the workload that the Southwest 737's go through every day and its amazing how they do it w/o a single crash..::knock on wood: I h
26 PROSA: Using data from the 1st Quarter of 2002 and thd 737-300/700 aircraft. First number is block hours per day, 2nd is flight hours per day: F9 - 10.9 - 9.
27 InnocuousFox: "It truly is amazing the workload that the Southwest 737's go through every day and its amazing how they do it w/o a single crash" Uh... it's not THAT
28 Theflcowboy: Not to piss on anybodys parade, but what about the WN that overran the end of the runway in Burbank? Or are we talking fatal crashes?
29 Okie: WN has not been without a few accidents or incidents BUR being one of them but no fatalities. Says a lot about Mx, pilot proficiency (4-5 landings per
30 Atrude777: For Southwest safety records, its second behind QANTAS, and America West is 3rd I believe. InnocuousFox-Name one other Major airline in the US that ha
31 OPNLguy: >>>It has had 3 disrupted landings.....ONT ( left gear failed i believe) BUR over shot runway and SAN I believe or SJC where it over ran the runway du
32 Atrude777: It was some southern california airport, LAX, ONT, SNA, or SAN or SJC. it coudl have been SMF But I thought it was SAN. Basically there was heavy floo
33 OPNLguy: >>>It was some southern california airport, LAX, ONT, SNA, or SAN or SJC. it coudl have been SMF I must have been off that day....
34 Planespotting: it's gotta be a lot more interesting being a Southwest pilot then working at a different carrier, the hub and spoke system can get pretty mundane.....
35 Tbear815: I do agree that this topic is truly interesting. Now, what about the routings of International A/C that have long airborne times? Example: A UA 744 OR
36 InnocuousFox: "InnocuousFox-Name one other Major airline in the US that has NEVER had a crash... [snip] so obviously WN is the only major to NEVER have a crash. so
37 InnocuousFox: "the hub and spoke system can get pretty mundane" I have to agree with that, although UA is starting to do a bit more wandering with their aircraft. Y
38 Bruce: Now take those numbers and imagine applying them to a -2H4 that was delivered in 1982.......22 years of this schedule!!!!! I can see why when they are
39 Atrude777: Here is a schedule of 732 service over Texas....quite alot, now pultiply it by over 30 states!!!! Alex THERES SOMEBODY ELSE UP THERE THAT LOVES YOU
40 Bruce: This might be a technical question in the civil forum.....but which is harder on an aircraft: continuous long haul flights or numerous short hops like
41 Cactus739: On a WN flight last month from PHX-MCI, I had a few minutes to talk with one of the flight attendants. They had started their day in PHX then to LAS,
42 Steveswa737: I am a BWI based FA for WN. My next trip looks like this: EQP 700 BWI-MHT 0645-0800 700 MHT-MCI 0825-1150 700 MCI-LAX 1215-1555 Layover LAX 16 hours 5
43 Flyboy80: I have a question for you WN F/As...is it procedure that when the aircraft arrives at the gate, that you slightly open or "crack" specific doors on th
44 737doctor: How great is this? I fly to Austin to see my daughter this morning and then come home to a LUVfest for our MX department. I just want to say that my f
45 Cloudy: This might be a technical question in the civil forum.....but which is harder on an aircraft: continuous long haul flights or numerous short hops like
46 Av8trxx: "I have a question for you WN F/As...is it procedure that when the aircraft arrives at the gate, that you slightly open or "crack" specific doors on t
47 Swardu: Good job SWA TPA. What amazes me though, is how the Schedule Planning Dept can put all this together with the maintanence lines, 737-200 lines, the SN
48 SWA TPA: Hi Swardu! Nice to have you on A.net! Also great to have another WN CSA around here This thread has really got some interesting info in it! Thanks ev
49 7Seas: Hate to burst anyone's bubble but someone further back in the thread said WN turn times are usually 20-25 minutes. Many in the company and media still
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