Refers to questions asking about airline practices, procedures, and processes both in the employment arena and in flight.
Questions tagged [airline-operations]
590 questions
34
votes
6 answers
How can an airliner make up for time lost?
If a plane has been delayed at the origin how does it make up for the lost time? Does the pilot need any special permission from ATC to increase the speed so that it can cover the lost time or has the pilot the power to make such kind of decisions?
LearningPhase
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Why do pilots do walkaround inspections for regularly scheduled commercial flights instead of aircraft mechanics?
If the airline has personnel to maintain the aircraft, wouldn't it be more cost effective to have them inspect the aircraft before flight rather than have the captain or first officer do it?
Is it because whoever will fly the aircraft will probably…
slantalpha
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28
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2 answers
How do airlines pay air crews for an aborted flight, in general?
I was watching this SWISS video. It's a flight from Zurich to Shanghai. Shortly after take off they have high engine oil temp in engine 3 and end up shutting it down. They declare a pan-pan-pan, dump fuel and return to Zurich. It's pretty…
CGCampbell
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26
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1 answer
Does a request for passengers to open vents indicate pressurization issues or equipment failure?
This occurrence was a year ago, but it kept bugging me until this day. I am a frequent flyer and this happened only this one time. While the plane (a Swiss A320) was still by the gate and the boarding just completed, the attendants asked the…
Aleksandar Stojadinovic
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24
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2 answers
To what degree do airline ops specs preclude hand flying?
I retired in 1999. I'm curious to what degree typical airline ops specs now discourage or prohibit doing what I used to do as a matter of course insofar as hand flying.
For example, I usually hand flew the aircraft until leveling at the first cruise…
Terry
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22
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2 answers
Why not use radio to communicate with ramp marshall instead of marshalling signals?
Why don’t we just use radio to communicate with the ramp marshall instead of all the hand signals? They could just say move a little left or right, stop etc instead of learning all the hand signals.
Parth
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20
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2 answers
Lufthansa making short flights MUC→LEJ→PRG→VIE→MUC with A380s
Today I noticed a Lufthansa A380 taking off from Prague and … flying to Vienna. And the FlightRadar track looks like it didn't even stop here. It starts with the plane turning off the runway at the end, shows it taking half an hour to taxi back to…
Jan Hudec
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15
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3 answers
Why have different flights with the same flight number?
It's not uncommon for two distinct flights to have the same number. For example, DL10 consists of a narrow-bodied jet flying from Denver to Minneapolis–St Paul and then, two to three hours later, a wide-bodied jet flying from MSP to London…
David Richerby
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14
votes
1 answer
Do airline pilots use FD when performing visual landing?
Permitting weather, most airline pilots get visual landing clearance in the US, unless they specifically have requested an instrument or RNAV approach due to their company rules or special circumstances. My question is: when they disengage Auto…
lemonincider
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2 answers
Is there a particular reason that EasyJet uses U2 as their code?
Does anyone know why EasyJet uses U2 as the prefix for flight numbers? Other airlines have more logical prefixes. Eg. KL -> KLM, AZ -> Alitalia, BA-> British Airways, etc. Even though they do not always match the airline name exactly, they do mimic…
Fabrizio Mazzoni
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12
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1 answer
What does a passenger aircraft galley ('kitchen') look like?
What equipment is installed in passenger aircraft for catering the passenger?
Him
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11
votes
2 answers
Why would a diverted airline flight return to its departure airport rather than land at the nearest one?
The Vueling flight VY2119 Barcelona-Malaga yesterday (see flightradar) got diverted 50 min into the flight. The nearest airport then was Valencia, but they chose to turn around and fly all the way back to the origin airport, even flying by another…
Quora Feans
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11
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1 answer
Do any airlines publish their policy on CRM / Do Not Pair?
A question came up recently on Skeptics.se regarding the implementation of "Do Not Pair" lists in Airline operations. I am skeptical of the answer given (irony?) which ascribes the implementation of the Do Not Pair list to the accident on board…
Jamiec
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9
votes
1 answer
Who opens an airliner's door first after it lands?
I know this is a trivial question, but since I always sit near the back of the plane, I can't see what happens up in the front. Whose responsibility is it to open the cabin door once the aircraft has pulled up to the jet bridge?
kgutwin
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9
votes
2 answers
Is there a legal minimum stop time between 2 legs?
This question is restricted to airliners transporting many passengers (let's say more than 20).
Between two legs, airliners stay at the boarding gate for a limited time, sometimes less than an hour. The stopover duration at the gate is typically…
Manu H
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