1. Mesa Air Group
Turn-Time Study
Jordan Benn - Jonathan Hunt - Captain John Harris
June 11, 2014 - August 1, 2014
1

2. Study Details
• Location:
▫ CLT
• Objective:
▫ Accurately time and record aircraft operations
while on the ground; especially while parked at
the gate
• Purpose:
▫ Pinpoint the source of Controllable Delays in the
Turn process; suggest fixes based on observations
of operations
2

3. Data Acquisition Methods
• During each block of flights we split up by
section and relative proximity to maximize the
number of aircraft we could observe at one time
(ie. gates E24 – E26).
• We observed aircraft from arrival to departure
and recorded the times that events of
importance occurred – jet bridge attaching, first
passenger off, so on and so forth.
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4. Data Acquisition Methods (cont.)
• Times recorded were accurate to the minute
using digital clocks and spreadsheet software
downloaded to iPads.
• When all observed times were recorded, the
landing and take-off times from the ACARS
system were added to the spreadsheet.
• Spreadsheets from each individual team
member were compiled into a master list which
was also set up to analyze the data collected.
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5. Data Acquisition Methods (cont.)
• Over the time period of the study, we observed and
recorded data for over 550 flights.
• As with any study involving practical observations,
there were outliers in our dataset.
• In an effort to obtain typical/statistical averages, we
eliminated these outliers from our data using
control chart methodology.
• Paring down the dataset in this fashion also
eliminates any bias in timing due to outside/atypical
factors like late passengers, handicapped passengers
and other uncontrollable circumstances.
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6. Taxi In from Landing
The taxi in (and out) times
were determined using the
timestamp from the ACARS
system. In the bar chart at
right, the orange bars
represent the proportion of
flights that arrived in each time
interval. Our true data showed
a range of 2 - 36 minutes;
however, times close to the 36
minute extreme made up a
very small minority of the
dataset.
Out of the time ranges shown,
most flights take between 10 –
14 minutes to taxi to their gate
from landing.
10%
24%
33%
21%
12%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
2-5
6-9
10-14
15-18
19-22
Percentage of Flights
TimeIntervals(minutes)
Taxi In Time
Flights
*Statistical Average: 11 minutes
6

7. Taxi Out from Gate
Again, in the bar chart at right,
the orange bars represent the
proportion of flights that
departed in each time interval.
Our true data showed a range
of 4 - 56 minutes; however,
times close to the 56 minute
extreme made up a very small
minority of the dataset.
Out of the time ranges shown,
most flights take between 12 -
15 minutes to taxi to the
runway from the gate.
12%
29%
24%
21%
14%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
7-11
12-15
16-19
20-23
24-27
Percentage of Flights
TimeIntervals(minutes)
Taxi Out Time
Flights
*Statistical Average: 20 minutes
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8. Passenger Debarking
For passenger debarking time we
marked the start time as the time
when the first passenger stepped
through the terminal doors, and the
end time when the last passenger
came through the door. In almost
half of the flights we observed, de-
planing the aircraft took from 8 - 10
minutes, with over 75% of flights
taking less than 10 minutes.
The majority of flights that took
over 13 minutes had an inordinate
amount of passengers requiring
wheelchair or other special
assistance. This circumstance was
not a regular enough occurrence to
be a significant issue.
Passenger Debarking Time
8
Time Elapsed
Minimum 2 minutes
Average 8 minutes
Maximum 18 minutes

9. Passenger Embarking
Passenger boarding was recorded
as the time it took from the first
passenger through the terminal
doors until the last passenger
through the door. Almost 75% of
flights that we observed boarded in
18 minutes or less (just under the
prescribed 20 minute mark).
The longer boarding times – as
opposed to the debarking times –
are mainly due to late passengers,
standby passengers, passengers
needing special assistance or all of
the above.
Passenger Embarking Time
9
Time Elapsed
Minimum 5 minutes
Average 15 minutes
Maximum 36 minutes

10. Jet Bridge Operation
To record the times it took for jet bridge attachment, we recorded the time it was attached and took the
difference from the ACARS system data generated by the plane pulling up at the gate. For jet bridge
detachment we used the time elapsed between the end of boarding and when the gate agent pulled the
bridge.
The true data shows times as long as 16 and 42 minutes for attaching and detaching the jet bridge,
respectively. Again, the extreme times account for a very small portion of the flights we observed and
can be attributed to various exigent circumstances (ie. maintenance delays with passengers already
boarded, etc).
Also, the longer average time (+5 minutes) for taking the jet bridge off was typically due to the gate
agent finishing paperwork to hand in to the flight crew. In most cases, we observed that this did not
cause any unnecessary delay.
Jet Bridge ON Jet Bridge OFF
Minimum <1 minute 1 minute
Average 1 minute 6 minutes
Maximum 16 minutes 42 minutes
Std. Dev. 1 minute 3 minutes
10

11. 11 1
1
8
8
(Gap*)
(Gap*)
15
15
6
6
20
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Time Elapsed (minutes)
Total Process Times
Taxi In Jet Bridge On De-Bark Boarding Jet Bridge Off Taxi Out
Total Time Needed
The timeline above shows the average time an aircraft spends at the gate (top) and how much
time elapses from landing to take-off (bottom). We’ve added a 5 minute “Gap” to both
timelines to denote the typical amount of time spent between the last passenger to exit the jet
bridge and the beginning of boarding. Since the flight crew usually uses this time to tidy up the
aircraft, we estimated that this takes roughly 5 minutes. Overall, the average gate time is
approximately 35 minutes while the average ground time is approximately 66 minutes.
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12. Additional Observations
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Baggage Handling:
Observations:
• Gate-checked baggage
offloaded from dolly to
jet bridge one bag at a
time
Consequences:
• Bottleneck for baggage
and congestion in the jet
bridge caused by waiting
passengers
• Flight crew difficulty in
exiting jet bridge
• Boarding quickly for a
“quick turn” not an
option
• Debarking is not as fast
as it could be
Boarding:
Observations:
• Often, strings of
extremely late
passengers arrive at the
gate last-minute,
catching the gate agent
while they were finishing
paperwork for take-off
Consequences:
• Caused many flights
affected by this to leave
the gate later than
intended
• Forced the gate agent to
re-do paperwork
necessary for take-off
Ramp Crew:
Observations:
• Sometimes during a
typical turn, the ramp
crews were not present
or available to complete
“below the wing” duties
• At times baggage was
handled carelessly
Consequences:
• Flight crews had to wait
for fuel, potable water,
waste removal, baggage
loading etc., causing
delays
• Passengers in the
terminal took note of
how baggage was
handled

13. Add. Obs. – Crew Swaps
One more issue that is contributing to flight delays are crew swaps. Because of
scheduling, some crews may even arrive on one plane and depart on another while
carrying the same flight number as before; this is called a broken through-flight. We
have noticed that this causes unnecessary delays and seems to be a significant
logistical problem. Through a very small sample size (~10 flights), we gained an
insight into the timing of this process, concluding that it takes approximately 2
minutes for the crew to debark after the last passenger has exited the plane, and
another 5 minutes to get to the next aircraft.
This seems like a very small amount of time, however, this 7 minutes outside the
aircraft is largely unnecessary and costs time. When the crew boards the next
aircraft, they must go through all of the pre-flight checks that would not be necessary
had they stayed on the same aircraft. This could cause passenger boarding to be
delayed and therefore, make the entire flight late.
Obviously, crew swaps are necessary for operation and situations do arise where
schedules must be changed, but CLT’s percentage of crew swaps ranged from 68% to
80.2% daily during a 3 week period. With this many swaps daily, there are that
many more chances to incur a delay. This also means that from the start of
operations on any given day, there is already so much potential for failure that if an
issue arises, it could cause a domino effect of delays.
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