What does it take to ‘turnaround’ an aeroplane?

If you’ve ever taken a cross country flight via a commercial airliner you have probably stood for at least a moment and observed the happenings around the aircraft on the ramp. The flights that come and go throughout the day carrying passengers from point A to point B are referred to as ‘Thru Flights’ and that sequence of events you might observe through the concourse window are probably as they relate to the “Turnaround” of the aircraft as it prepares to continue it’s journey to it’s next destination.

I’m sharing a video I filmed in April of 2022. I set up a camera outside of our maintenance office and let the camera witness and record “The Turnaround”.

You’ll see the aircraft pull in to the gate and the jetway brought up. Then you witness things like strollers being brought up the jetway, cargo being unloaded, provisioning trucks supplying the snacks and drinks both at the front and the back of the aircraft. Pay attention and you will see one of the pilots doing his walkaraound. If you observe closely you will note that the mechanics are summoned to the aircraft to look at the number one engine. Then you see process of removing the jetway and pushing the aircraft out.

This entire process used to be a 20 minute affair at Southwest and long ago evena 10 minute affair. Nowadays we are on par with the other big airlines and our turns are on average scheduled for 40 minutes. This condensed video compresses those 40 minutes into less than 2 minutex. What do you think?

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