Where do jets go once they are done with their flight?

Question

I know many continue on to destinations, but how many hours and flights do aircraft fly a day? I know larger aircraft that fly international only fly one flight each way (ex. New York to London). But what about a flight from BDL to PIT? What happens once the jet arrives there?

Answer 1

They go home to a nice cup of coco and bed.

Usually back out again, unless it's time for maintainance.

Answer 2

If it does not have any scheduled flights it would be moved onto an area on the tarmac until it is needed.  It may go to an area for servicing or mainteance, look around at your airport and you will see some larg hangars where aircraft are taken for servicing, maintenance, inspections,and Phase maintenance( where the aircraft is inspected and high time components will be replaced).  All the servicing and inspections are done to ensure that aircraft come back when they go flying, at 30,000 feet you can't pull over to fix a problem.

Answer 3

Airlines use staged maintaince plans approved by the FAA. So they fly until this comes up, there is damage, or an AD (Airworthiness Directive) is issued by the FAA. Those are mandatory compliance and any aircraft can only be flown with FAA permission to the nearest place it can be complied with. That said and done large commercial aircraft are like buses. They get dirty because people are naturally messy. Jets are regularly hangared so clean up crews can clean them. There is nothing romantic about air travel today it is just a flying bus and the older and more used an aircraft is the messier and more worn it is. I don't even like civil aviation. I prefer to work in defense programs. I find ninety percent of the companies are more practical, less prejudiced and have more interesting work.

Answer 4

most will fly so many hours a day till either there is a flight restriction or some maintenance is needed

Answer 5

They go into the hanger where they are inspected, cleaned, and worked on.

Answer 6

Justin,

Airlines route their aircraft to get around 10 hours per day of flying out of each one. They are expensive pieces of equipment and they need to be kept flying. An aircraft that flies from BDL to PIT may go on to LAX, LAS, and PIT to SYR in a day.

I know of a B-727 for United in the 80's that started in RIC and went RIC-DCA-ORD-OMA-ORD-PIT-CRW-ATL-CLE in a day.It used flight numbers 271 to OMA, 404 to ATL, and 888 to CLE. It hauled almost full loads on every leg and with 2 cycles through ORD a day, was never on time, and was the reason that I was late for college classes every night.

Almost every airport served by commercial aviation has an aircraft spending the night. They get in about 10-11 pm and leave around 6am. They get cleaned at the overnight stations.

If it is a large station for the owning airline, they get the lavatories serviced as well.

Regards,

Dan

Answer 7

jets do not stop flying unless their in for maintenance or grounded. the crew changes, but the jet always flys regardless the time.

Answer 8

Dan is pretty much correct.  At my airline the planes fly 8-10 legs a day beginning at 6 am and going to 11 pm.  We overnight almost all of our airplanes at outstations rather than the hubs due to fees.  The company has to pay a fee for the amount of planes parked overnight at the airport.  For hub airports this fee is much more sizable than at an outstation.  After the plane arrives on the last flight of the day the plane is cleaned and the lav serviced.  Also if deicing is required that is accomplished before the crew arrives in the morning if feasible.

We also try and turn most of our planes around in about 45 min.  The more a plane is flying the more money it is making.  If it's just sitting at the gate then it is costing the company money.