How Does Ryanair Achieve Its 25-Minute Aircraft Turnarounds?

A turnaround time is the time between the landing of an aircraft and the taking off of a new flight. This temporary hiatus is when the aircraft is not making any money for the airline, as there are no passengers onboard. The longer the turnaround time is, the more losses an airline has; as aircraft have to pay airport charges, the aircraft depreciate over time, and there might also be leasing costs.

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A turnaround time might be as little as around half an hour to as long as two hours. The turnaround time depends upon various factors, such as the type of aircraft operating and whether the operations are short-haul or long. When it comes to economizing the turnaround time, there is no other airline that comes close to the 25-minute aircraft turnaround time of Ryanair. But how does Europe’s largest low-fare airline achieve this impressive turnaround time? Let’s find out.

Photo: GetFocus | Shutterstock

Major factors affecting turnaround times

Many airlines would try to mimic Ryanair’s turnaround time of less than half an hour. But this isn’t always possible. There are a variety of factors that affect the turnaround time of an aircraft/ airline. These include, but are not limited to:

• Untimely ground handling services: Ground handling services such as cargo handling, baggage handling, and passenger handling can be affected if there are technical glitches.
• Aircraft ground damage: IATA reports that aircraft ground damage is expected to reach 8 billion by 2030. Factors such as ground support equipment, passenger boarding bridges, etc., cause aircraft ground damage.
• Missing passengers: Although this is not as common an issue, passengers who need to board a plane can be missing, adding to the turnaround time.

How does RyanAir manage to wade through all of these issues?

When a department handling cargo (or baggage or passengers) isn’t performing as well as it should, the lag can create a snowball effect, affecting turnaround times. This shows how well-oiled Ryanair’s ground-handling services are. Aircraft ground damage isn’t as persistent an occurrence, and neither is the problem of missing passengers. Instead, there are other factors that Ryanair takes care of to manage impressive turnaround times. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Photo: Ryanair

Removing passengers quickly

Ryanair typically uses stairs at the rear as well as the front of the aircraft, cutting down the time to disembark an aircraft by half. Furthermore, below the front door of the port side of Ryanair’s Boeing 737s, there are hidden airstairs, allowing passengers to deplane without waiting for stairs.

Getting everybody on quickly

Just as Ryanair focuses on removing passengers quickly, it also boards passengers for their flight at a quick pace. The tactic employed by Ryanair to board passengers was coined “Boarding Not Boarding” by Simple Flying’s Paul Lucas. This phrase refers to the beginning of the boarding process before passengers have finished deboarding. This ensures that any delay related to boarding is dealt with in plenty of time.

Removal of seatback pockets

You don’t find seatback pockets on aircraft operated by Ryanair. The airline removed these from the aircraft it operated in 2004. This means that the passengers take the rubbish with them, getting rid of the time it would have taken to clean the aircraft and thereby allowing the airline to have a quicker turnaround time.

Having a strict hand luggage policy

Here are a few notes about Ryanair’s strict hand baggage policy:

• The low-cost carrier only allows passengers to place one small bag to be placed underneath their seats.
• Maximum dimensions of the bag: 40x20x25cm

Photo: Ryanair

Anyone who wants to bring additional luggage onboard Ryanair flights must pay a fee, which starts at £6. Such passengers are given a ‘priority passenger’ status. This status gives the passengers the freedom to place a slightly larger bag under their seat alongside an additional bag that has the following:

• A maximum dimension of 55x40x20cm.
• A maximum size of 10kg

However, such passengers with a priority status also have priority boarding, making sure that the airline reduces its turnaround time.

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How does the short and sharp turnaround time of 25 minutes help Ryanair?

There are various benefits of having such a quick turnaround time for airlines and passengers alike. A quick turnaround time is associated with punctuality. This is why Ryanair had an impressive 88% on-time arrival in May this year, though this was a slight dip from the 92% on-arrival time it had in February.

Photo: John B Hewitt | Shutterstock

Besides this, Ryanair also enjoys a few other benefits of such an impressive turnaround time.

Ryanair is dedicated to being carbon-neutral by the year 2050. Its quick turnaround time is one of the steps to achieving this. According to a report by Simple Flying

“ …International Civil Aviation Organization encourages aviation stakeholders to commit to the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. An aircraft’s idle time increases local air pollution and the carbon footprint of airports. The same paper noted that propulsion technologies have not yet advanced enough to meet the European goals of reduced emissions by 2050, so reducing an aircraft’s wait time on the ground is essential from an environmental standpoint.”

What is your take on Ryanair’s 25-minute turnaround time? Let us know in the comments below.