Alternates and rescheduling

[Fearless Tower]

Just wondering how airlines handle re-routing passengers and planes when a flight has to land at its alternate?

I was listening to the radio Friday night (Wx pretty nasty up here in New England) and heard a Comair flight going missed at Logan. RVR wasn't improving so the flight elected to proceed to Providence (not sure, but I'm guessing they weren't Cat II or III certified? The Majors weren't having any trouble getting in.

So the question is, when the plane lands at the alternate, how does the airline re-route the pax? PVD is only about a 2 hour drive from Boston and there are no scheduled flights between the two airports. Does the airline put everyone on buses to Boston or do they fly a non-sched hop from PVD to BOS when the weather gets above minimums? Anyone had a similar experience?

 

[Flyerjosh]

The simple answer is that there is no simple answer...

First off to answer your question, the CRJs that Comair flies aren't cat III certified. (Most regionals don't get the certification, particularly the east coast operators because the weather usually isn't that big a deal in the big scheme of things).

Second, diverts and the affect that they have on the system can range from a minor hiccup to a major hassle. A lot depends on the time of day, the alternate (distance from the original destination & services available), crew duty limits, the number of passengers, the overall schedule of the aircraft and the company, and the trend of the weather.

In your particular instance, the odds are that the flight eventually went to BOS with the passengers. This is the case about 95-99% of the time. The plane probably sat out the weather and eventually made the short trip. This is because of a few reasons, primarily because the company needs an aircraft in BOS to remove passengers (that were scheduled to fly out on the inbound flight). This is even more likely if the flight was the last flight in and was spending the night there.

Another option is that the flight dropped its passengers in PVD and they were bussed to BOS. However that still leaves a hole in the schedule. It's possible that the company could cancel the outbound flight and consolidate those passengers to other flights, and then repo the aircraft back to base or directly to another airport in the schedule.

Airlines utilize various systems ranging from complex computer simulations to simple whiteboards and magnets that allow scenarios to be "played" out and evaluated during a weather event (or aircraft maintenance event). The ultimate goal is to minimize the impact on the system to the greatest extent possible in regards to cancellations and ontime performance.

Clear as mud, huh?

 

[DC8 Flyer]

It is usually along the lines of the old high school line. Drive out into the country with a chic, "Oh, look we are out of gas, whatever shall we do.."

 

[propsarebest]

The offical dispatch term is...
"Gas and go"...

 

[wmuflyguy]

Most diversions are just gas up and go try back at the destiantion, since the most common reason for a divert is lack of gas. Twice we bussed passengers to their destinations because it was not possible to procede(runway lights were out).

Comair is CAT II. It was really crappy in Boston this week(someting liek 6 or 7in of rain), we did a CAT II today there, but broke out 200 feet above the mins. I don't know of anyone who operates the RJ's CAT III, maybe Horizon?