AIRWAYS AIRPORT SPECIAL FEATURE Tales Airbus From to Antarctica the Ramp depart from the world ’ s largest cities between 05:00 and 23:00 , it is essential to maintain at least the basic infrastructure and staff during valley hours . The ability to monitor and quickly act must be maintained should an overflying plane declare an emergency and be forced to deviate to the closest airfield available .
Also , many long-haul flights are deliberately scheduled to land before sunrise in order to enable connecting passengers to transfer onward to continental departures on the first bank of the morning .
For example , London-Heathrow Airport ( LHR ), one of the most transited on a global scale , receives a daily average of 15 wide-body arrivals between 05:00 and 06:00 from North America , Asia , and Africa , with plenty of passengers connecting on flights to the rest of Europe .
Looking at today ’ s schedule , I find out that , first , I will be assisting the arrival of a long-haul flight from Sao Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport ( GRU ). This Boeing 787 has just made a more than 12-hour journey from Brazil , and it ’ s now our job to take care of all the exhausted passengers and crew . Also ,
1 Airports don ’ t sleep at all , and flight preparations for morning departures begin with refueling and catering restocking while most passengers are still asleep .
www . airwaysmag . com AIRWAYS MAGAZINE AUGUST 2024 47