FAQ - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
LINES OF FLIGHT REPORT
2) HOW IS THE DATA CALCULATED?
3) HOW DO YOU READ THE REPORT?
4) WHAT IS A MINIMUM TURN TIME?
6) WHY ARE THERE BLANK LINES? WHY ARE THERE TOO MANY PLANES IN THE FLEET?
1) I CAN'T SEE THE DATA?
The LINES OF FLIGHT REPORT is available to INTL TIER and above.
2) HOW IS THE DATA CALCULATED?
The data is based on published schedules run through a fleet optimizer that determined the next flight in the routing based upon the minimum turn time specified. If the minimum turn time is too long or too short it will produce too few or too many lines. Minimum turns are determined inside the airline and can only be guessed at, and they vary by airport, equipment type, and season.
3) HOW DO YOU READ THE REPORT?
All flight times are converted to Zulu/GMT and then adjusted to U.S. Eastern Daylight Time. Because of the complexity of Daylight Savings Time there will frequently be errors related to daylight savings time that affect the length of the flight blocks and we apologize for that. The colored block is intended to represent the time the aircraft is scheduled to be away from gate, either in the air or taxiing. In theory there is a row for each active airplane in the fleet, however, that can be too high or too low for a number reasons related to minimum turn times and the number of aircraft in maintenance.
4) WHAT IS A MINIMUM TURN TIME?
Minimum Turn Time is the minimum time a plane will be scheduled to be on the ground between flights. A lot of factors determine the Minimum Turn Time for a fleet at an airline and we can only guess what the correct Minimum Turn Time is. If the minimum turn time is too long or too short it will produce too few or too many lines. Minimum turns are determined inside the airline and can only be guessed at, and they vary by airport, equipment type, and season.
5) WHY ARE THERE SEVEN PAGES?
Because of the proliferation of non-daily services, aircraft assignments vary by day and 7 days of reporting more fully captures the workings of the fleet over a week.
6) WHY ARE THERE BLANK LINES? WHY ARE THERE TOO MANY PLANES IN THE FLEET?
If the Minimum Turn Time is not set correctly for a particular station it will split the turn into a 24 hour overnight, or even longer with non-daily routes. This creates empty lines. It may also be that the plane is simply not assigned flights on that day of the week, or has an unscheduled charter or ferry flight.
7) IS THIS BASED ON ACTUAL AIRCRAFT ROUTINGS HISTORICALLY?
The data is based on published schedules run through a fleet optimizer that determined the next flight in the routing based upon the minimum turn time specified. This report is typically used for future dates anyway, and past aircraft rotations are not a guide to the future. Airline maintenance operations control also often swaps aircraft in order to assure needs are met.
8) WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT?
This report can show how well utilized a fleet is in order to determine utilization gaps where flights could be added, or just what a plane is up to over the course of a week...in theory.