"Operational Requirements"

[Stephen B]

Hi all,

I saw the only slightly one sided story about Tiger on 7 tonight. We flew with them last year, and while everything turned out OK for us, they did change the time of our flight 4 times in the months before the day, with it eventually landing in Melbourne 2 minutes before we were due to depart Canberra.

I'm wondering if someone could please explain exactly what are these famous "operational requirements" we always hear about as justifications for airlines changing their schedules? I can understand particularly with older fleets aircraft can go unserviceable at times, just like any other vehicle, but that usually causes a last minute re-scheduling, not several changes over several weeks.

Not picking on Tiger here, but isn't their whole fleet brand new? Surely they don't have very many mechanical issues? I've flown Qantas and Virgin many times before, and (fortunately I guess) never once had a flight time changed.

Personally I'd be happy to fly with them if I had no particular time I had to be at my destination, but I will never fly with them to a meeting or connecting flight. But only because of "operational requirements" of course!