Aa777jr From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 1601 times:
How much does it cost a carrier to divert/cancel a flight once it is in the air? Most recentally, BA brought back a flight to LHR that was in air 3 hrs, what did this cost them? Thanks!
Skibum9 From United States, joined Nov 2001, 1082 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 1544 times:
Depends on the airplane and destination. The dependency on the airplane is due to fuel burn. The dependency on destination is how long the plane holds before diverting, the flight time to the diverted airport, any landing fees and ground handling fees. etc. So there is no simple answer.
Geoffm From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2004, 2111 posts, RR: 6 Reply 2, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 1463 times:
Three hours into an eight hour flight would mean most of the fuel burnt anyway (six hours' worth, and they might have to dump some of the remaining). Put up 400 people in a hotel for the night, feed them. Roster an extra pair of crew (assuming the flight went out in addition to the next day's flight), find another aircraft, maybe bring one of them back empty.... the list goes on.
AAR90 From United States, joined Jan 2000, 2796 posts, RR: 41 Reply 3, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1364 times:
I recall a company email a couple of years ago that said the average AA divert cost $75,000. Note that is the average; includes short-haul F100 flights as well as long-haul 777 international flights.
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ERJ170 From United States, joined Apr 2004, 5466 posts, RR: 13 Reply 4, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 1347 times:
it shouldn't cost much if it is a diversion to an airport they already serve, correct.. meaning.. if there was a diversion LAX-LHR and it was diverted to PHL.. there shouldn't be a lot of money since they already serve PHL.. compared to say.. if they diverted to a non-AA station..
JetBlueAtJFK From United States, joined Jan 2005, 1666 posts, RR: 6 Reply 6, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 1201 times:
The BA plane that diverted was only halfway there and so when it turned back it was the same distance so it wasn't that much of a fuel difference at landing. Plus if a flight diverts and then gets off the ground again in 2 hours or so it isn't as expensive because there wasn't any hotels of food to pay for. Some times (more than just some though) the airline gives free flight vouchers so that costs.
Eldoylio From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2003, 96 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 1172 times:
I should imagine that in the case of BA's diversion this week there will also be the consequential loss to consider.
Missed transfers and connections for pax
Subsequent complaints to BA from its customers
PAX missing personal/business schedule
There is always going to be a significant number of customers who will complain about the situation and may also receive compensation from BA (I would imagine in the form of a future travel voucher).
The list consequential losses could go on an on.
If my memory serves me right around 1997/8 an Airtours 767 from LGW bound for KIN was diverted due to an incident with a number of passengers onboard. They had become drunk and had started arguing with other passangers until eventually the situation got out of control and the captain made the decision to divert. I am sure that when this occurred Airtours were planning on reclaiming the costs of the diversion from the passengers who caused the incident.
Perhaps if someone else has any info on this they could shed some light on whether or not Airtours succeeded in the claim!
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Geoffm From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2004, 2111 posts, RR: 6 Reply 8, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 961 times:
I believe the flight we're talking about didn't leave again until the following day (it returned to its origin, LHR, it didn't "divert" to an alternative airport), hence my comments. 3/8ths of the way there I guess is probably closer to 1/2 the fuel gone, so yes a whole flight's fuel gone.
Rtfm From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2004, 320 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 756 times:
Plus you also have to factor in some of those less tangible costs like, a/c utilisation, crew hours, etc and their impact on subsequent schedules. Suffice to say that no airline welcomes these sort of events...
UAXDXer From United States, joined Jul 2004, 624 posts, RR: 2 Reply 10, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 730 times:
it shouldn't cost much if it is a diversion to an airport they already serve, correct.. meaning.. if there was a diversion LAX-LHR and it was diverted to PHL.. there shouldn't be a lot of money since they already serve PHL.. compared to say.. if they diverted to a non-AA station..
This is not true, any time a flight diverts it cost the airline lots and lots of money. The costs include but are not limited to: missed connections, diverted flight causes the next leg for the aircraft to be delayed or cancelled, ground personal at diverted airport are taken away from scheduled customers to tend to diverted aircraft and passengers, landing fees, additional flight time for crew possibly causing them to not be legal for future legs that day. These are just some of the things that cost airlines lots of money when an airplane diverts.
[Edited 2005-01-15 02:23:47]
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RoseFlyer From United States, joined Feb 2004, 5280 posts, RR: 17 Reply 12, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 570 times:
The costs of course vary widely. One of the most expensive single event diversions ever was when a UA 777 from Europe to California diverted to Yellowknife Canada due to an engine problem. They had no facilities in Yellowknife to deal with the plane, and had to ferry a full 777 up there to get the stranded passengers and then had a 777 out of operations for weeks while that had to ship up the necessary equipment to get it back from the middle of no where Canada. That type of diversion I am guessing probably cost the airline in the range of 1 million dollars. That is far different than WN making a quick tech stop in MCI for a transcon. Nice question though, I have always been curious about the actual monetary costs of diversions to the industry.
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Jkudall From United States, joined Mar 2004, 450 posts, RR: 2 Reply 13, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 530 times:
A few months ago we had an Air France 777 divert here (SLC) only one hour en route from SFO-CDG for a medical emergency. So they had to dump the majority of the fuel they originally had loaded and buy enough again to get them from SLC-CDG. That must have been expensive.
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Jfidler From Estonia, joined Aug 2000, 220 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 529 times:
I was in an interesting situation a few years ago. Perhaps some A.Netters can shed some light. I was flying CPH-IAD on an SK B767. 2-3 hours into the flight, the captain said there was trouble with one of the engines, and they were turning back to CPH. He said he sent live data feeds to the mechanics and they couldn't figure it out, so it was best just to take it for repairs. He said that the flight could have made it to IAD with no problems, but they don't have the repair facilities there for the plane once it arrived.
So instead, we went back to CPH. Because the previous day's CPH-IAD flight had been cancelled, they knew there was no way they'd get 2 days' worth of cancellations to fit onto the next day's flight. So instead, they flew some people to FRA to spend the night there, and take an LH FRA-IAD flight. The other set (including me) were flown to VIE to spend the night there, then flew on an OS flight to IAD the next day. The "ferry flights" to get us to VIE and FRA were not scheduled flights -- they were added specifically for us stranded passengers.
That's a lot of expense to fly us all around, put us up for the night in a decent hotel, and fly us to IAD the next day on different carriers (though still Star Alliance).
My question was this: I think the captain meant there were no SK techs at IAD to fix the engine. Surely a large airport like IAD has the capacity to service 767s. I know UA flies a number of 767s in and out of IAD every day.
Are the charges if they had a UA maintenance crew fix the engine really so high that it was worth the expense to do what they did in this situation? You could say right away that it was, because airlines are thinking about cost-savings, but this was a spur-of-the-moment decision so you can't be sure they closely analyzed all the options.
RDUDDJI From Lesotho, joined Jun 2004, 1170 posts, RR: 5 Reply 15, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 468 times:
If it returns to the origin (as in this case) it is technically a "return to field" and not a diversion. That may sound insignificant but it means a ton to the carrier financially...
Geoffm From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2004, 2111 posts, RR: 6 Reply 16, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 437 times:
I was watching a programme on Discovery last night about air rage. The figures quoted for offloading a passenger at Bangor, Maine was £5,000 to £40,000 in direct additional costs.
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