The monthly blog from Andrew Sharp, Director General of IARO, September
I don’t fly by night unless I really have to.
In my job, I have to fly – I have to travel to see IARO members, to speak at conferences and to see the latest developments in the air-rail world. I usually travel in economy and very occasionally in economy plus: I only travel in business if I can get a good deal or I can upgrade on points.
My luxury is that I try not to fly overnight. The main reason is that I can’t sleep for long. Even flying (on points) in business class recently on United between Los Angeles and London I only managed two hours uninterrupted sleep: I subsequently read, worked or dozed.
Moreover there’s the time issue. Flying, say, Chicago to London overnight you leave at around 20:20 local time and arrive at 10:00 local time. By the time the aircraft has got to cruise altitude and the crew are ready to serve a meal, it’s around 21:30 local: by the time you’ve finished eating and are ready to sleep it’s 23:00 local. But that’s 5:00 UK time! Two or three hours later the crew wake you up to serve breakfast so that everything’s tidy for the landing at Heathrow. So maximum sleep time, even on a 6350 km flight, is 2-3 hours.
Normally when I go to North America I return by day: I can do this from Toronto, Boston, New York and Washington DC (and sometimes Chicago). It’s a bind, because if I’m coming from the West Coast, I need to stay a night near one of these airports – and I have yet to find a hotel I like near JFK airport, for example.
Airlines don’t like eastbound daytime Transatlantic flights – they do nothing for aircraft utilisation. The timetable they prefer on, say, the London - Chicago route is to leave Heathrow at something like 11:40, arriving Chicago O’Hare at 14:10 then return at 20:20 arriving 10:00. One aircraft can do one return trip every 24 hours. A daytime eastbound flight would leave Chicago at something like 9:00 and arrive in London at 22:40. It would then have to stay there until 8:00 next day, arriving 10:30 in Chicago – too late to make a daytime flight back to the UK. Effectively that’s one round trip every 48 hours – half the productivity of the normal arrangement!
Going to the Far East also leaves me with a problem. If I go to Hong Kong or Kuala Lumpur, I can leave London around midday and arrive early morning local time, or leave late evening and arrive late the following afternoon.
If I leave at midday, fine, I get lunch at the expected time – but it’s then late evening Hong Kong time. I’m expected to sleep for the rest of the night – but my body says that’s too early!
Leaving around 21:00 is better. I get an evening meal rather later than I like, and settle down to sleep at a reasonably normal time. But that’s 7:00 Hong Kong time! Again, confusing!
The real problem is the Middle East. Why do airlines insist on flying to London at anti-social hours? From Abu Dhabi there’s a flight at 2:10, from Bahrain at 1:10, Doha at 23:20, Dubai at 1:40 or 2:45 and Riyadh at 2:20. Why?
How do others cope with this?
I hope you enjoyed reading this: I look forward to your feedback. Andrew
