Question re how cities to divert to are selected

[AgMedallion]

In cases like this:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL32/h...2134Z/KLAX/KSYR

where the flight probably diverted to SYR for the purpose of refueling after being in a lengthy holding pattern for JFK, what factors go into selecting what city to divert to? I'd assume unless it's an emergency, the captain must confer with AA operations. Assuming weather doesn't force the issue or perhaps there's no other city to divert to with a suitable length runway, does AA advise the pilot before the flight what city to list as an alternate when he files his/her flight plan or maybe give that pilot a list of "approved" cities? Does AA have contracts with certain FBOs at certain airports where they go for the best price on fuel and perhaps even lower landing fees? Does whether it's a mainline vs American Eagle vs non-AA or AE city enter into the equation? More specifically (because this was debated on Flyertalk where, I admit, aviation expertise is quite a bit lower than found here ) does the refueling cost enter in? Do AA pilots top off the tanks if there's significant cost savings or does the cost of hauling thousands of pounds of extra fuel outweigh the savings? Perhaps AA uses a software program with hundreds of variables, refueling cost included, to determine which city to divert to? Thanks for any info you can provide.

 

[ZMAN777]

While I can't speak for how AA has it's flight planning software set up, I'm sure it's pretty similar to most airlines. Add to that the fact that FARs are very specific on when an alternate is required and the weather needed at said airport to quality as an alternate for that particular flight and you begin to come up with some pretty straight forward answers.

I don't know what the weather was like at JFK on this particular night but given that they'd been holding tells me the airport/approach in use was below their minimums. When weather like this is anticipated dispatch will flight plan with additional fuel for such a contingency. When the Captain signs off the release for the flight he/she will either concur with the fuel load or even add fuel depending on all sorts of variables. Typically they'll go with what dispatch has calculated given that dispatch is able to enter into the mix such variables as time of day of the flight, historical traffic levels, probability of divert, etc.

In selecting the alternate, again, it's typically pretty straight forward....what airport that we serve or qualifies for our use has the required weather for us to use in the event our flight needs to divert there. Obviously we'd like to go with the closest airport but sometimes that won't work due to heavy diverts already there (i.e. swamped by earlier diverts for similar reasons), poor weather itself, etc. In this case they went to SYR. Other alternates that would typically be chosen would be EWR, PHL, ALB, PVD, etc. Again, without access to the weather in the area that day it's hard to say. My guess is the weather system affected all of those closer alternates otherwise I'm sure they would've been listed on the flight plan. Once listed on the flight plan the fuel needed for this addional contingency is also factored in. Sometimes more than one alternate can be listed and the required fuel will reflect divert to the most distant.

The decision to divert rests with the Captain and typically he or she will have been in contact with dispatch via data-link well before they actually need to go. Given that they had been in holding it's pretty safe to say they'd been in contact with dispatch since their arrival at the holding fix. Typically I'll send a message to dispatch telling them of our fuel, what that means in terms of holding time, and also MY plan should we reach our "BINGO FUEL" without any feedback from dispatch.

This is done for a number of reasons, first, it satisfies the FAR requirement to keep dispatch informed (except in an emergency although that is usually done as well unless extremely time constrained), second, makes it a bit easier for dispatch given that his/her workload is probably pretty high already handling many other flights as well. Once we've got our plan settled on, the weather double checked at ALL suitable alternates in close proximity, then we basically execute the gameplan should we not be able to proceed and land at our primary destination. And third, should be decide to go on to the alternate, hopefully dispatch will have coordinated with that station so they know about our arrival and can get the necessary fuel to us asap and get us out of there, hopefully back to our original destination quickly.

Hope this was of some help.

Cheers,
Z B)