How Long Does It Take To Prepare An A330 HAL For Departure

What I Will Be Currently Doing Next Time

So because most of my real world aviation posts aren’t used in copying an pasting and simply me, putting it in easier form, I decided next time, I will start my own trend entitled , [SimpleAviation] meaning, I will break down real life facts and put them in a way where everyone can understand what’s going on

Hello! Ever wondered whats happening to your flight say for example Hawaiian Airlines, while your in TSA Lines Preparing for your flight? Well enough said, because I for sure have an answer for you! During long / medium hauls, whatever aircraft operator is, they will decide how long the aircraft should come in for preparation for the next flight.

Example Airline: Lets take Hawaiian Airline for example. They always come in either 2-3 hours earlier before the next departure out. This is also for preparations that the airline needs to follow in order to get up in the air.

Why do they come way earlier when smaller companies come half an hour before boarding?
The answer is simple. Smaller companies are built on revenue and money. Smaller companies like Southwest, Frontier, and Jetblue do not need a lot of preparations since their money making is built on flight time. SInce Hawaiian is a much bigger airline, their focus are on customer satisfaction and a good yelp review :).

Little Backside on why smaller airline companies don’t come 2-3 hours before departure: Well for one, each of these aircrafts salaries are based off of time… Time is what kills airlines! Southwest is a good example. As they arrive half an hour before boarding, they are given a small period of time to restock, refuel, and re-plan for their next flight. Giving as little time as possible makes it possible for more flights and as you know, flights are what smaller airlines need. Ever wonder why they give you peanuts and pretzels and a complimentary drink? Its budgets. By reducing the amount of food they pack, gives the airline less time to prepare for takeoff. What about clean seats?? How can they clean everyone’s seat in half an hour? The answer is simple… They don’t… Southwest sometimes, arrives late so flight attendants instead of having half an hour, get 20 minutes, so the seats aren’t always fully clean. Why else do airlines not come 2-3 hours before departure? Well as more people board Southwest a day then Hawaiian, that offers the company more money and by the use of budget, the proccess starts all over again

How long does it take an A330 To Be Fully Cleaned: As many operators offer different methods, Hawaiian offers customer satisfaction rather then the quantity of customers, it takes Hawaiian an hour and thirty minutes to prepare for their departure! Can you believe that… That’s simply an A330 being fully cleaned to the limit. The reason I picked Hawaiian because they were rated top customer satisfaction for overall sanitary and health wise reasons. We are talking about seats being fully cleaned out and vacuumed, for a full flight more then 550 meals are able to be stowed on, and luggage is being loaded on and off for the departing flight. Lets not forget about refueling and the pilots pre-flight checklist that they have to run. This was all done in a hour and thirty minute period .It is said it takes 60 people to pull this off and it was tested! This is simply the manpower and willpower of not only rampies, but crew members as well! What do the actual crew members do for the rest of the time? Well it really depends of the aircraft comes in late or early! If the plane comes in an hour late, that gives 60 people a small timeframe to clean and restock the aircraft. What happens if they finish early? Well final preparations are made and flight attendants are always busy.

  • My Overall Review Of This Topic: Can’t say I hate it nor love it. It’s the aircraft that gets the job done and it would be nice to sit in a clean seat and eat some delicious airplane food while watching a movie. I think that an hour and 30 minutes isn’t quite that much time, but it also shows people how fast an A330 can be fully restocked. I would love to see how fast other A330 Operators take to preload an entire A330 for Departure! Let me know if you know how long! Thanks and Happy New Years

  • This Thread is not inspired by HVA nor Hawaiian itself, it’s currently my own facts I found off the internet!

A List Of People Who Might be Interested:

@Balloonchaser
@Jmacd20
@Lgsfly

  • That’s currently all I know!

Article to Prove This Isn’t Fake:

Let me know if you have some A330 Operators who Operate just as fast or faster, thanks for tuning in and expect more coming soon!

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Personally, I think the FAA should make it mandatory that all airlines maintain a high standard of cleanliness. Some small airlines don’t care about the cleanliness in the cabin anymore because they are just like it’s gonna get dirty again so who cares.

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When I flew on a China airlines A330 5 days ago they got to the gate around 2 hours before departure

Great arcticle!

You have highlighted the main difference between a LoCo and MainLine airline. As with all airlines or transport for that matter, an aircraft is only earning money when it is in the air on a revenue flight with passengers. Part of the LoCo strategy is that they make maxmiumum use of their aircraft with the short turnarounds at airports so that they can maximise number of flights in a day and do 4 or sometimes 6 sectors a day!

You mentioned that LoCos use the FAs to clean their arircraft on a turnaround tosave fees on a cleaning company as well as reducing food/drink service to help on turnround costs,but what else?

Well you have probably noticed that a lot LoCos use remote stands and air steps (even when at a main gate),this is a big help in reducing costs at an aiport. Anouther feature is that a LoCo often uses brand new aircraft which are leased rather than owned. Not only does this reduce capital costs of ownership but also helps on reduction on maintainance costs. Wendover Productions on YouTube have a couple of great vids explaining this in better detail!

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When I flew on a United 737-800 back home to NY (EWR) from SJO (Costa Rica) they were able to prep the plane in a few minutes

Lol. Thanks for sharing, took a short time right?

The BA A380 stops over for nearly 10 hours when flying LHR-HKG-LHR. It was there when I arrived at the airport (to spot), and still there when I left.

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Long Haul do have longer layovers.This is not only related to cleaning / fueling / storing the aircraft,but also as the aircraft will have to set off at a certain time in order to meet its arrival time / landing slot,back at LHR (or other base). Often cheaper to keep an aircraft at an outstation such as HKG rather than back at their home base.

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That’s unnecessary. The FAA’s job is to ensure safety, not keep cabins clean.

Anyway, nice stuff. I wouldn’t say I didn’t know this, but it wasn’t very fresh in my memory.

I don’t think the FAA should be involved in cabin cleanliness because as a ‘consumer’ of their product unless there is physically no other choice then you won’t fly with them again if the cabin was dirty. Nowadays there is so much choice on different routes with different airlines that you can say no to one airline because you had a bad experience.

By having a bad cabin there losing customers due to the fact it’s dirty. The FAA doesn’t need to stand in the customers will make up their own mind.

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fully agree with you,however certainly on the LoCos it is part of the FA’s role to clean on the turnaround as saves the cost on employeing an outside cleaning company when away from base!

If you search on You tube there is a documenatry where a British reporterwent undercover working for Ryan Air as a FA for 6months and discovered lots of intresting things. Its a few years old now but worth a watch if you can find it.

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It’s a good point, but there’s a difference between a dirty cabin and vomit in the seat.

check out that documentary that was one of the things that they had to clear up…I wish I was joking as I agree that the FA job is safety and secuirty as a priorty…

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I know, I watched it. That’s why I am making that distinction.

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yeo it was barely 10 minutes from when the plane landed to start and push

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Thanks… that’s where I get most of my facts actually! I might go into “LoCo” airlines in a little more depth next time.

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