Matthew must be too young to remember Allegheny! They did have a schedule, but any resemblance to what happened was pure coincidence. (Note to US Airways attorneys: this is hyperbole) Then there was Delta's interesting slogan, "Delta is ready when you are." Actually, your idea is interesting, but I think it would make the Travelling Salesman Problem seem easy (A salesman must visit n cities. What is the most efficient routing?) john On Fri, 16 May 2003, Matthew Montano wrote: > I am wondering if anyone has ever tried to run an airline where you > don't schedule specific flights at specific times? > > For example, an airline would sell you a ticket to transport you from > point A to point B, on a certain day, with departure after a certain > time, and arrival before another. > > Then, depending on the actual loads, dynamically allocate aircraft to > fly specific routes, as needed. > > Whereas today, a routing between YVR and ATL might be on three separate > planes (through SEA and DEN), the # of tickets sold between those two > cities might justify a single CRJ making the jump with a fueling stop > in Minneapolis. Another day, the best routing would be use an A319. > Other days, not even a direct flight at all. > > Aside from some of the obvious logistical problems about scheduling > ground crews, could it work? > > Obviously airlines with the A320 family planes practice a bit of this > already by swapping 319/320s as demand warrants, but what about at a > much larger scale? > > Matthew > -- John F. Kurtzke, C.S.C. Department of Mathematics 278 Buckley Center University of Portland Portland, OR 97203 503-943-7377 kurtzke@xxxxxx