Ryanair is a master of turnaround. Recently flew back from a city and the incoming flight was still in the air when the ground crew started the boarding procedure.
As someone else said, RYR turnaround between sectors is 25 minutes. The aim is 3 minutes between when the last passenger gets off the plane until the first passenger gets on for the next flight!
It’s why there’s no rush to board a Ryanair flight, I always wait for most people to board before boarding myself, no point being crushed into a corridor whilst the aircraft is still 5 minutes away
Also a key reason as to why Ryanair is famous for it's hard/bumpy landings whereby pilots are encouraged to land hard & thus use less brakes or else you'd have to wait for brakes to cool before next flight which ruins a quick turn around.
As an ex aircraft dispatch officer, I can tell you that my personal record for an LCA operating B737s was 26 minutes from brakes on to brakes off. And both flights were fully loaded. I've sent a B767 out in under 45 minutes. Long haul in, long haul out - brakes on to brakes off! When I started the job, I was told turnarounds are a circus - the dispatch officer is the ringmaster. Keep a tight rein on everything and it runs like clockwork!
as much as people may dislike it it, narrow bodies seem to be becoming more and more viable, replacing bigger things even, but planes like the 787, A350, and other future wide bodies will never go away.
This contradicts was Boeing has said publicly. Southwest being their biggest customer asked them during designing the Classic Series to reduce turn around time of a 737-300, -400, &-500, to be reduced to 15 minutes. SO :The services were replumbed , relocated or adjusted as best they could to allow all the service vehicles to access the plane at once. Now of course in the practical world : passengers don't always board at the same rate, neither do bags and freight so with these delays I doubt if 15 minutes actually worked out in the real world but Boeing felt the changes made it at least possible . I've seen 737s turn in 25 minutes fairly often. I think these days unions may have negotiated perhaps a certain breather for the crews since those days as well.
I've only ever flown with Ryanair twice. Others have been turbo prop (Aer Lingus, Aer Lingus regional operated by stobart Air and Aer Arann express) or legacy carrier narrow body jets (Aer Lingus, KLM). There was a quick turnaround at Kerry Airport when I went to Dublin last month. There weren't many boarding. The return flight was delayed by more than 90 minutes. We were let out to the plane very early. I was waiting at the base of the stairs waiting to board at the rear of the plane for at least 10 minutes. This made the turnaround feel very long. I was at the front of the queue, though, and had priority boarding with a pre booked seat.
In my experience only wizzair can do in 45 minutes or less But in middle East airlines gcc Average time between 55 minutes or more Because of bulk load so many Some time small aircraft can take 1 hour and 20 minutes if is full flight
I have been an aircraft refueler for 22 years now and 30 - 45 minutes is the average time, provided everything works out for everyone involved. There are too many services involved for a complete turnaround to be done any faster.
I work at line at a smaller FBO and we get 737’s and A320’s around 8-10 times a year for charters plus 2 veterans honor flights a year and for us to fuel it takes 20 minutes or so but usually they only take around 2000 gallons or 20k pounds. But we can turn one around with about 100 passengers in 30 minutes. The pilots and airline staff always tell us how much faster we are and things go so much smoothly than other FBOs they have to work with.
Narrow body airplanes line the 737 and A320 don’t use containers. All luggage and cargo are loaded manually, by hand and delivered via luggage carts. The average number of containers is not 8, but between 2 to 5. Wide body airplanes are loaded with individual containers, called AKE’s and DPE’s, using a motorized cargo bay. The average load is about 8 containers.
Southwest turning around their fleet of B737s is truly incredible especially to see it happen I recently timed one happening at Orlando Airport and it took them just 9 minutes to turn around an entire B737 MAX 8! Also Frontier Airlines turning around their fleet of A320 family jets is the polar opposite and the slowest I’ve ever seen! 😩
I was a refueler in Australia in the 90s and be straight to the plane when the red beacon was off. Standard turn around time for Dash 8s and Saab A340s was 20 minutes. For 737s it was 30 minutes.
Very short ones are possible when they are a multi-leg flight. Some flights have multiple legs- one flight I was recently on was LAX-LAS-DAL-HOU. I was able to watch how the crew gets the plane turned... the plane arrives at the gate, pax deplanes and the 'thru passengers' continuing on are told to remain seated. The flight attendants start cleaning and getting ready for the next flight as passengers leave. The thru passengers are counted and the count is verified. The crew checks the plane, allows thru passengers to move seats and they start boarding. I'm guessing they must be tankering fuel since passengers remain on the flight.
What is the minimum turn around from point of view of ensuring brakes from landing have sufficiently cooled? Doesn't that impact whether it makes sense to rush turn around or not. Not point of rushing turn around if the plane still has to wait x minutes for brakes to finish cooling off before turning on engines. Or is brake cool off always much shorter time than the logistics of turning around?
Indonesia Airasia, the airline that i've flown the most and the first low cost carrier that i flown on, usually takes 25 to 30 minutes to turnaround an Airbus A320 from arrive at the gate until it's ready for departure.
Way back in the 1970's when they had an average load factor of less than 50% on small aircraft and less regulation and mostly business travelers between Dallas and Houston so no luggage. Very different animal now.
Video did not touch on percentage of people using overhead bins (for free). In my experience full use of the bins easily doubles on board and de board process. Plus bins never include graphic stating whether wheels should be in or out…
Air Asia low cost carrier from malaysia has mastered this. They work flat out in 45min to turn around. Air asia also use buffer time each airline keeps for take off and landing thus they make it looks like ontime performance. i have seen several time that Air asia has arrived late and reached on destination on time as they kept big buffer.
Ryanair have a turnaround time of around 25 minutes. However they are keen to get out the gate and arrive at their destination early so as to ease the pressure. That's the reason if you turn up late you won't get on.
If a plane has made its last trip of the night and is parked for the night at the airport, does it get refueled that night yet or not till the next day, assuming the next day’s flight is known already?
fueling can't begin until the fueller knows how much fuel to put on the plane, which comes from dispatch via the flight plan, which at least for Delta, is planned 70 minutes prior to departure.
Is there data on different load/unload times for baggage that is in containers or loose luggage? As I recal, the 320 comes in both, and 737 is loose luggage only and I wonder if this becomes part of decision to go for 320 vs 737 for airlines that handle much checked luggage/ cargo.
I was thinking the same. If you include every single Aisle over 80 passengers, where, as you point out, only the 320 series use containers, and then not always, I would have thought that a significant majority of flights have suitcases loaded one at a time. Just recently, on a full flight on an A220, the hold doors were not closed for some time after the passenger ones. The reason for our late departure.
Ryanair, 20 minutes, they don’t clean the plane the passengers do and they have the next passengers on buses next to the plane to board AS SOON AS the arriving passengers are off!
Ryanair is a master of turnaround. Recently flew back from a city and the incoming flight was still in the air when the ground crew started the boarding procedure.
😂😂😂
😂 love it
Ryanair has a turnaround time of 25 minuters, so every second counts :)
As someone else said, RYR turnaround between sectors is 25 minutes. The aim is 3 minutes between when the last passenger gets off the plane until the first passenger gets on for the next flight!
It’s why there’s no rush to board a Ryanair flight, I always wait for most people to board before boarding myself, no point being crushed into a corridor whilst the aircraft is still 5 minutes away
Also a key reason as to why Ryanair is famous for it's hard/bumpy landings whereby pilots are encouraged to land hard & thus use less brakes or else you'd have to wait for brakes to cool before next flight which ruins a quick turn around.
As an ex aircraft dispatch officer, I can tell you that my personal record for an LCA operating B737s was 26 minutes from brakes on to brakes off. And both flights were fully loaded. I've sent a B767 out in under 45 minutes. Long haul in, long haul out - brakes on to brakes off!
When I started the job, I was told turnarounds are a circus - the dispatch officer is the ringmaster. Keep a tight rein on everything and it runs like clockwork!
as much as people may dislike it it, narrow bodies seem to be becoming more and more viable, replacing bigger things even, but planes like the 787, A350, and other future wide bodies will never go away.
Working with Ryanair in a small regional airport, the timing is very strictly imposed by ryanair, 25min block to block, it's very quick !
This contradicts was Boeing has said publicly. Southwest being their biggest customer asked them during designing the Classic Series to reduce turn around time of a 737-300, -400, &-500, to be reduced to 15 minutes.
SO :The services were replumbed , relocated or adjusted as best they could to allow all the service vehicles to access the plane at once. Now of course in the practical world : passengers don't always board at the same rate, neither do bags and freight so with these delays I doubt if 15 minutes actually worked out in the real world but Boeing felt the changes made it at least possible .
I've seen 737s turn in 25 minutes fairly often. I think these days unions may have negotiated perhaps a certain breather for the crews since those days as well.
I've only ever flown with Ryanair twice. Others have been turbo prop (Aer Lingus, Aer Lingus regional operated by stobart Air and Aer Arann express) or legacy carrier narrow body jets (Aer Lingus, KLM). There was a quick turnaround at Kerry Airport when I went to Dublin last month. There weren't many boarding. The return flight was delayed by more than 90 minutes. We were let out to the plane very early. I was waiting at the base of the stairs waiting to board at the rear of the plane for at least 10 minutes. This made the turnaround feel very long. I was at the front of the queue, though, and had priority boarding with a pre booked seat.
In my experience only wizzair can do in 45 minutes or less
But in middle East airlines gcc
Average time between 55 minutes or more
Because of bulk load so many
Some time small aircraft can take 1 hour and 20 minutes if is full flight
I have been an aircraft refueler for 22 years now and 30 - 45 minutes is the average time, provided everything works out for everyone involved. There are too many services involved for a complete turnaround to be done any faster.
I work at line at a smaller FBO and we get 737’s and A320’s around 8-10 times a year for charters plus 2 veterans honor flights a year and for us to fuel it takes 20 minutes or so but usually they only take around 2000 gallons or 20k pounds. But we can turn one around with about 100 passengers in 30 minutes. The pilots and airline staff always tell us how much faster we are and things go so much smoothly than other FBOs they have to work with.
Narrow body airplanes line the 737 and A320 don’t use containers. All luggage and cargo are loaded manually, by hand and delivered via luggage carts. The average number of containers is not 8, but between 2 to 5. Wide body airplanes are loaded with individual containers, called AKE’s and DPE’s, using a motorized cargo bay. The average load is about 8 containers.
Ryanair: hold my beer
Southwest turning around their fleet of B737s is truly incredible especially to see it happen I recently timed one happening at Orlando Airport and it took them just 9 minutes to turn around an entire B737 MAX 8! Also Frontier Airlines turning around their fleet of A320 family jets is the polar opposite and the slowest I’ve ever seen! 😩
I was a refueler in Australia in the 90s and be straight to the plane when the red beacon was off. Standard turn around time for Dash 8s and Saab A340s was 20 minutes. For 737s it was 30 minutes.
@simpleflying could you to a video about how Southwest Airlines achieved 10 minute turnaround time in their early days?
Very short ones are possible when they are a multi-leg flight. Some flights have multiple legs- one flight I was recently on was LAX-LAS-DAL-HOU.
I was able to watch how the crew gets the plane turned... the plane arrives at the gate, pax deplanes and the 'thru passengers' continuing on are told to remain seated. The flight attendants start cleaning and getting ready for the next flight as passengers leave. The thru passengers are counted and the count is verified. The crew checks the plane, allows thru passengers to move seats and they start boarding. I'm guessing they must be tankering fuel since passengers remain on the flight.
AirAsia's standard turnaround time for their 180-186 pax A320s is 25 minutes
What is the minimum turn around from point of view of ensuring brakes from landing have sufficiently cooled? Doesn't that impact whether it makes sense to rush turn around or not. Not point of rushing turn around if the plane still has to wait x minutes for brakes to finish cooling off before turning on engines.
Or is brake cool off always much shorter time than the logistics of turning around?
Indonesia Airasia, the airline that i've flown the most and the first low cost carrier that i flown on, usually takes 25 to 30 minutes to turnaround an Airbus A320 from arrive at the gate until it's ready for departure.
That’s interesting
I heard that Southwest at one point had a 10 minute turn.
Way back in the 1970's when they had an average load factor of less than 50% on small aircraft and less regulation and mostly business travelers between Dallas and Houston so no luggage. Very different animal now.
At Glasgow airport in 1969, British United (BUA) would regularly turn around a BAC 1-11-500 in 40 minutes.
Video did not touch on percentage of people using overhead bins (for free). In my experience full use of the bins easily doubles on board and de board process. Plus bins never include graphic stating whether wheels should be in or out…
Air Asia low cost carrier from malaysia has mastered this. They work flat out in 45min to turn around. Air asia also use buffer time each airline keeps for take off and landing thus they make it looks like ontime performance. i have seen several time that Air asia has arrived late and reached on destination on time as they kept big buffer.
I wonder how long it took to turn around a DC-8-70, which had around 200 seats.
Avg times are 30mins for low cost airlines and 2hrs max for full service airlines like Emirates
Ryanair have a turnaround time of around 25 minutes. However they are keen to get out the gate and arrive at their destination early so as to ease the pressure. That's the reason if you turn up late you won't get on.
True! I remember arriving once in Beauvais so early the custom officers were not here yet. We had to wait for them a few minutes.
If a plane has made its last trip of the night and is parked for the night at the airport, does it get refueled that night yet or not till the next day, assuming the next day’s flight is known already?
fueling can't begin until the fueller knows how much fuel to put on the plane, which comes from dispatch via the flight plan, which at least for Delta, is planned 70 minutes prior to departure.
@@andrewneber2897 - so if the plane sits idle overnight it doesn't get refueled till the next day. Thanks.
What about wide body airplanes!
Is there data on different load/unload times for baggage that is in containers or loose luggage? As I recal, the 320 comes in both, and 737 is loose luggage only and I wonder if this becomes part of decision to go for 320 vs 737 for airlines that handle much checked luggage/ cargo.
I was thinking the same.
If you include every single Aisle over 80 passengers, where, as you point out, only the 320 series use containers, and then not always, I would have thought that a significant majority of flights have suitcases loaded one at a time.
Just recently, on a full flight on an A220, the hold doors were not closed for some time after the passenger ones. The reason for our late departure.
In theory. Ppl take so long to get off planes 🤦🏾♂️
Ryanair, 20 minutes, they don’t clean the plane the passengers do and they have the next passengers on buses next to the plane to board AS SOON AS the arriving passengers are off!
Spot at 4.07 a narrow body on its way to JFK.
Low Cost Carriers through ramp service times out the window!
All these numbers are great but what is the reality? How long does all this actually take? I'm sure all of the airlines track it.
It varies greatly by airline based on a lot of factors. For a hub carrier in the US trying to do it 30 minutes is often not the goal.
Air Canada is terrible. Takes them 55mins for an A320 and even 40-45mins for a Q400 or CRJ-900 sometimes.
Just like US airlines they clearly are having staffing issues. Mainline legacy airlines usually turn 737/A320s within 1h if all goes well
How can budget airlines make it in 25 minutes? See Ryanair, Easyjet and the like
Don't really find the averages very useful in this case. Really just going to depend on airline, network, airport, size of aircraft etc.