How long is pax loading on various planes in real life, presuming full capacity? For example, A321 is loaded with 186 pax after circa 9 minutes via FSCaptain. Is this loading time realistic? Also does the 747 or A380 will load practically 3 times faster due to 3 active jetways, instead of 1 active with A320/321/757/737, etc?

Where I can find some info about it, couldn't find it on google.

 

Not strictly FSX related, I just want to make loading times more realistic in FSCaptain.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

 

I was watching "Ultimate Airport Dubai" on Natgeo the other day, and a Emirates A380 was loading Pax 30 mins pre dep.

 

Cargo was being loaded about an hour pre dep. The 777 was the same time. The 380 can be loaded by more than one air bridge so I guess the time being the same as the T777 will make sense.

For a 737 and A320, ANZ load 20 mins pre dep for domestic, and 30 mins for Intl

 

Some airlines may have longer or shorter turnarounds. For example, ATR72 and Dash 8 here in NZ only have a 20 min turnaround at some airports.

That's the info I needed! Cheers and thanks!

No problem. Forgot to mention that at Dubai, the A380 and T7 had a 90min turnaround.

The gate is opened 20 minutes pre dep no matter if there is 80 or 180 pax waiting?

 

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The gate is opened 20 minutes pre dep no matter if there is 80 or 180 pax waiting?

 

Sent from my U8815 using Tapatalk 2

Emirates was 30

In the US, most airlines use 30 minutes for narrow bodies and the wide bodies are usually between 40 and 50 minutes with the caveat that most try to close the doors 10 min prior to departure time. There are exceptions of course. I know a few years back it wasn't uncommon for us to see 30 minute turns at some hubs so you might have 15 min to board a 737, for example. 

Ok, so 15 minute boardings would be ok. The problem is that in fscaptain you can't set fixed boarding times, 100 pax will board 5 minutes, 200 around 10, and so on. One simple calc app will solve that, and I'm working on it.

 

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Sure, 15 minutes is ok for a 737 or an A320.  Both are around 130 passengers, give or take, depending on the model and carrier.  200 passengers in 10 minutes would be pushing it in the real world.  You'd need closer to 20-25 minutes.  I haven't used FsCaptain, but my guess is the loading times used are a compromise the developer chose to simulate the boarding process but keep things moving for folks who don't necessarily have the time/desire to sit at the gate for realistic period of time.

The default numbers used by FSCaptain actually result in a faster load than in real life -- the average simmer just doesn't want to sit at the gate for 20 minutes as the passengers load.  We don't get many complaints about the timing but all so far have been that it's too slow, not too fast.

 

But it's configurable.  You can change the numbers on the "Options for All Airlines" tab of the Administrator and choose the average number of ticks (1/18th second) per passenger based on PAX load size.  If you want to wait longer, you certainly can.

 

Passenger load time is not the same as turnaround time, which involves much more than just loading passengers and there's potential catering, fuel loading, and paperwork to be done during the turnaround.

 

Dutch

Average time I spend on flight preparation on the gate is around 15 minutes (fliggtplan, weather, systems, PFE preparation, etc), so I love to hear passengers boarding during that time, a bit more realistic option for me.

 

Currently working on a simple app that will help me to enter the number of ticks in FSC for exactly 10 or 15 minute long boarding, regardless PAX number. It'ss easier for me to plan a start of boarding, with 50 or 150 pax it will be always 13-14 minutes pre departure.

Approximately 20-25 minutes for a 250 passenger 77W. 

What Dutch said about turn time vs loading time is spot on.  Don't confuse the two.  I mention turn time only because boarding time is relative to it.  As a general rule, boarding time is equal to half the turn time.  So if you have a 40 min turn, for example, the cabin needs to be released for boarding no later than 20 min prior to scheduled departure time.  This is really only a consideration if the plane is on the ground for an hour or less.  More than an hour on the ground and you're back to the times I mentioned earlier. 
Of course this is the sim world so the plane is always clean, the crew is always on time, there are never any maintenance squawks to deal with, we have 100% on time departures and arrivals, and you can take as much or as little time as you like to board.  :smile: