ASSIGNMENT 1 – Individual Assignment

Hi Everyone,
During the lecture on Thursday, I made mention of the fact that a number of
you had come to me with legitimate and good questions re the individual
assignment, that required further clarification. I said that I would capture these
and share it with the rest of the student group, as it will no doubt help them as
well.
So please read through this and I trust it will provide you with further clarity.
Rgds,
Dane

I would like to ask about the confusing wording on the website/app Great Circle Mapper.
On the listed time on the Great Circle Mapper, the time listed is called "Travel time" .
However, we are asked to get the flight time in order to calculate the block hours so is the
listed time on Great Circle Mapper the flight time or is it the block time
You will only be able to get accurate block times from airlines flying any of the designated
city pairs. What you were asked to do, was to try to find the block times. This is not always
available or possible, so flying times is the next best thing, unless you can find another
source to the one I have suggested, you should use this. In any event, you should always
state / cite your source in your assignment, which will allow me to verify from where you
have obtained your data.

Another quick question, is it our choice in the number of aircraft we use for this
assignments schedule or is there a set number of aircraft that I missed somewhere?
As for ‘how many aircraft’ – that is the point of the assignment ! You need to propose how many and
why and from that, pull together a proposed schedule.

What about the destination airport curfew times ? Where do we find them ?
That is part of your research for the assignment. As University students, the expectation is that you
seek this information out and as with any information or assumptions that you work to, please be
sure to clearly cite/reference the source and include it in your bibliography.



I just had three questions regarding the individual assignment.
1. This first one may seem like a stupid question, but I just wanted to check that the schedule
includes return flights. For example, KUL-SIN occurs 3 times daily, meaning that there
would be 6 flights in total, specifically 3xKUL-SIN, then 3xSIN-KUL?

Correct – each city pair eg. KUL-SIN, is on a return basis

2. Do we need to reference where we obtained airport curfews from?

Yes, you must always reference any source of information / data and make that abundantly
clear.

3. Is there a specific way you wish for us to determine block hours or is it something we
should just approximate? Would something like 15 minutes at each airport be an
appropriate approximate? So the total block hours for the KUL-SIN flight for example
would be 1hr22mins, as it is a 52min flight time plus 30min for taxiing.

Where you have airlines currently flying from to/from KUL from any one of the cities in
question, you should use their published block hrs. However, where there are no airlines
flying and you have to use resources such as gcmapper to find the flying times, then you
should use their flying times as the default block times. This is probably the best that you can
do. Otherwise, everyone will make their own crazy assumptions around what the block
times should be and it would make it impossible for me to mark. That said, I think that there
are scheduled flights operated (or that operated) from each city pair, so the information
should be available.


1. For the scheduling, what would be the assumed turnaround time for our A320neo fleet?

You need to do some research here. It depends on what assumptions you make regarding the
business model of your airline. Look at how long full service carriers (FSC) take to do a turn vs
typically how long it is tht an LCC takes. Then ofcourse it depends on whether it is long haul or short
haul flight. There are many examples of airlines who fly these routes and you can check their
timetables and see what each one does. But be sure to reference any examples and be clear on what
is your assumption ie. FSC or LCC.

2. Also, do we need to take the A and B Check into account for our scheduling?

I’m sorry, but again, you need to do some research here to see what maintenance checks are
required for the A320 aircraft type and then be sure to schedule them into your weekly pattern,
making clear what type of maintenance check it is. I suggest that you look at the student examples
from last year which I have posted under the Assignment 1 tab in Moodle.

3. I am not too sure how to calculate the block time for each flight in Great Circle Mapper. Can you
please provide some guidance?
Your best guide is to look at existing airline schedules of those airlines who fly these routes. You can
see what gcmapper tells you regarding flying time and then compare it to actual published airline
schedules. If you have a situation where there is no scheduled flights on any of the city pairs, then
you should use the flying time as per gcmapper. However, whatever assumptions you make in your
schedule, be very clear to spell it out and make it clear.