(Ultra)-Longhaul Airline Simulation

Zurich hub

(Ultra)-Longhaul Airline Simulation

Complex and unique operations out of Zurich Airport

WED14:05Zurich time

Admin

Schedule in use

Upload a schedule

Add a rotation from Zurich

Change the aircraft type of a route

Checks on this schedule

Fleet shown in the tableOrder of the table

Rotation	From	To	STD	STA	Block	Aircraft	ID

How the file works

The quickest start: export the plan, change it in Excel, upload it again. Both CSV and XLSX work in both directions.
One row per flight. Needed columns: Day, From, To, a departure time, an arrival time, and Aircraft or Rotation. Type is optional (A321XLR, A350-1000ULR, A350-900, A330-900); without it, aircraft named XLR, ULR, A359 or A339 take that type and all others are A321XLR. Other columns are ignored.
Day is Mon to Sun or 1 to 7. Times are HH:MM in Zurich time, in UTC, or in local time at each airport: choose the basis before uploading. In local time, STD is local at the airport of departure, STA local at the airport of arrival, and Day is the local day of departure. An arrival earlier than the departure counts as the next day.
Local times use the offsets of the week of 14 September 2026 (IANA time zone database). Airports that change to or from summer time on other dates, south of the equator in particular, are an hour off in some weeks.
Every aircraft must leave from Zurich and come back to Zurich, with one or two stops in between. Airports are three-letter codes from the OurAirports list of airports with scheduled service.
With an Aircraft column, flights are chained per aircraft. With only a Rotation column, rotations are assigned automatically to aircraft of their type, with a turn at Zurich of 2 hours for the A321XLR and 2 h 30 for the widebodies.
Your schedule is saved with this page and loads again on your next visit. Restore the built-in plan to discard it.

Crew planning and roster

Crew pools and standby

Pilots Cabin crew Standby, % of the day's departures Standby days onStandby days off

Standby patterns

Standby crews stand by at home for a whole month on the pattern, early or late shift. Crew members the month needs, all ranks:

Pools compared

Pilots of two type ratings (ORO.FC.140, ORO.FC.240, operator approval) and cabin crew on three types (ORO.CC.250).

Crew needed for a year

Monthly roster

MonthPoolRank

Trip, destination on the first day: working days from the report to the day of arrivalR: EASA rest at home, whole days+: days added and the minimum of 2SB: standby crewsLV: leaveTR: trainingFree day

Destinations

Rotation category of the stay (1 to 4, by the duty that brings the crew in), nights on site, days added at home after the trip, hotel standard and rate. Leave a box empty for the listed value, set in Analysis, Crew regulations. A change rebuilds the trips.

Crew trips a week

Method and sources

Trips are built from the schedule rank by rank in each pool: pilots in one mixed-fleet pool or by type rating (A321XLR; A330/A350 with the common type rating), cabin crew in one pool for the three types or by type. At each station a crew member takes a departure after the rest away and the local nights of the rotation category; a departure to Zurich takes the one away longest, a departure onward the one who left Zurich last. Where nobody is there, a crew member flies out as a passenger; where too many are there, the extra ones fly home as passengers. A trip stays within 60 h of duty in 7 days and 100 h of flight time in 28.
Duty starts 1 h 30 before departure at Zurich and 1 h before elsewhere, and ends 1 h after arrival at Zurich and 30 min after elsewhere. The flight duty limits of the Simulation and Analysis use the same report times.
Nights on site, on top of the EASA rest away (the preceding duty or 10 h, 14 h when the station is 4 h or more from Zurich time, CS FTL.1.235(b)(3)(ii)): category 1 one local night, 2 two, 3 three, 4 four. Category 4 is a ULR special flight (to or from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Honolulu, the legs between Baltimore and Sydney included). Otherwise category 3 from 11 h of block time or more than 6 h from Zurich time, category 2 from 8 h or 4 h. A local night is 8 hours between 22:00 and 08:00 local time. A crew waits on site until the next departure, so stays run longer where the flight is not daily.
Free days at home: the day of arrival and the day of departure are working days. Then the EASA rest in whole days (at least the last duty or 12 h, ORO.FTL.235(a); after a trip with 4 h or more time difference 2 to 5 local nights, CS FTL.1.235(b)(3) Table 1; 3 local nights between an eastward and a westward trip), plus 1 day after A321XLR trips, 2 after widebody trips and 3 after ULR special flights, and never fewer than 2 free days.
Roster: real dates from Monday 29 March 2027, the summer week repeated; winter is not modeled yet. Leave 42 days a year: one block of 14 days and blocks of 7, spread over the year and over the crew, never on the free days after a trip. Training: pilots 6 days a year (flight simulator 3, recurrent safety training 3), cabin crew 3. Sick days 5 a year count in the yearly headcount. Standby crews stand by at home for a whole month on the pattern you set, 12 h shifts from 2 h before the first to 1 h after the last departure of the day, two shifts when the day is longer; 25 % of standby counts as duty (CS FTL.1.225).
ULR special flights: 7 cabin crew more than the A350-1000ULR complement (1 first class, 2 business, 2 premium economy and economy, 1 M/C second in charge, 1 M/C Y-class), 20 in all, so the crew rests in turns in the bunks. Every widebody has crew rest bunks for flight and cabin crew.
Checked in the roster: 60 h duty in 7 days, 110 h in 14, 190 h in 28, 100 h flight time in 28 days (ORO.FTL.210), and the recurrent extended recovery rest of 36 h with 2 local nights within every 168 h (ORO.FTL.235(d)); stays of that length away count. Two separate rests of 2 local days a month; a longer rest counts once, so 4 days are one rest, not two.
Hotels: 4 stars or more in western-style countries, 5 stars elsewhere, known chains preferred; USD 155 a room night as your planning average, a rate for each destination in the table. Room nights: the local midnights of each stay, at least one.
Pilots: CMD and F/O on two-pilot flights, a cruise commander (senior F/O) as third pilot, a second officer as fourth. Above FL200 a pilot with an ATPL may relieve the commander and a cruise relief co-pilot the F/O (ORO.FC.A.201).
Sources: CS FTL.1.235 and ORO.FTL.235 (Transport Malta FTL checklist), Subpart FTL consolidated (CAA Norway), ORO.FC.A.201 (EASA). IATA, cross crew qualification and mixed fleet flying, Airbus FAST 58. Crew complements, leave, training, standby, nights on site, days off and hotels: your standards of 13 October 2026.

Analysis of the schedule in use

Sources and method

Every rule value carries its source type. Official: a regulator, the airport, Eurocontrol, IATA or the European Central Bank. Airbus: the manufacturer's planning document. Derived: worked out from such data, with the method in the note. Study: a decision or assumption from the earlier steps. Your input: no published figure exists, so the field starts empty.
Every rule value is shown with its source. On this website the values are fixed; limits the simulation uses (Zurich turn, night closure, report time, duty limits, runway 28 limit) are passed on to it.
Three fleets: the A321XLR keeps the rule values of steps 1 to 9; the A350-1000ULR, A350-900 and A330-900 have their own values for cabin, mass, range, turn times, cabin crew and your rates. Charges at Zurich follow each type's mass class.
Costs: Zurich charges follow each planned flight through the published tables. En-route charges are a lower bound from the track over land. A321XLR fuel is distance times the listed burn; widebody fuel is the trip fuel of the Airbus range model of step 10 with a full cabin, over the distance times the wind factor. Empty items are left out of every total and named.
Crew: A321XLR duty limits for two acclimatised pilots by reporting time, the limit for an unknown state on the way home when the time difference exceeds four hours, minimum rest away from base, and crew numbers from the yearly flight-time limit. Widebody crews change at every stop; each leg takes the fewest pilots whose limit covers it (two, three or four with bunks), and legs beyond 18 hours are flagged for a FOCA-approved scheme. Individual rosters, standby and positioning are not modeled.
Airspace: the track is a great circle and country borders stand in for flight information regions. A flag means: read the bulletin and plan the routing.

Fares and revenue of the schedule in use

Upload fares

Sources and method

Booking classes: First F, A. Business J, C, D, Z, P (discount) and I (upgrades and awards, no fare). Premium economy G, E, N, R. Economy Y, B, M, U, H, Q, V, W, S, T, L, K.
Every fare is one way per passenger, net of taxes and airport charges. Fares from Zurich are in Swiss francs. Fares from the other end are in the currency of that country and are converted to Swiss francs for the revenue. On the widebody loops (Sydney and Baltimore, Hong Kong and Brisbane) each leg is its own market: Zurich to the first city, the first city to the second as a fifth-freedom market, and the second city to Zurich.
Every fare starts as an estimate. Its only published anchor is the average revenue per passenger-kilometer that Lufthansa Group airlines report by traffic region for 2025. The split over cabins and booking classes, the share of each class and the share of passengers starting at each end are estimates of this tool with no published source; they are marked and yours to change.
Revenue is seats of the aircraft type times load factor times the share of each class times its fare, for both directions of every rotation. A month is 52/12 weeks, a quarter 13 and a year 52 weeks of this schedule. Seasons, days of the week and payload limits on the longest legs are not modeled: the full cabin is sold and seats are blocked only on strong-headwind days (decision of 12 October 2026).
On the A321XLR triangles the two cities share the seats and seats between the two cities are not sold. On the widebody loops the leg between the two cities is sold as a fifth-freedom market (share of seats under Formula); the traffic rights with the United States, Hong Kong and Australia are present and active, as confirmed for this study on 12 October 2026. Competitor fares cover the Zurich markets only.
Upload a CSV or XLSX with the columns City, Origin, Class and Fare. The export gives the layout; rows marked as estimates are not read back as your fares.
Competitors: upload the fares you observe with the template of that tab. Each one is turned into Swiss francs one way and net of taxes, then set against your lowest fare on sale in the same cabin. A gap is listed for review when it reaches the percentage and the amount you set. Suggestions are applied one line at a time, by you. The alert is a message your mail program opens for you to send; nothing is sent by itself. Competitor fares are what you enter: the tool reads no booking site.

About this study

A long-haul and ultra-long-haul network out of Zurich, simulated week by week

A feasibility study of the cities an A321XLR, an A350-900, an A350-1000ULR and an A330-900 can serve from Zurich: how a week of operations runs and recovers from disruptions, what it costs, which crews it needs and what it could earn.

A study, not an airline. The airline in this simulation is hypothetical. It is not the plan of any existing carrier, and no airline took part. Schedules, cabins, fares and costs are study values built from published data and stated assumptions; they are neither offers nor forecasts.

What you can do here

Simulation. Play a full week of the schedule on the globe. Add a disruption, or pick one of the examples, and compare the recovery variants and what each one costs. When the week is over, the simulation starts again on Monday without disruptions. Nothing you do is stored: a reload starts clean.
Schedule. The weekly timetable by day, fleet, route or destination, with the checks that run on it. Export as CSV.
Crew. Crew trips, the yearly headcount by rank and a monthly roster from 29 March 2027, under EASA flight time limitations. Export as XLSX.
Analysis. Operational restrictions, costs, crew regulations, maintenance, ground operations and disruption costs, each value with its source. Export as XLSX.
Fares. Fares by booking class from both ends of every market, the revenue they produce, and a cross-check against competitor fares.

How the study was built

City pairs within reach of the A321XLR from Zurich, with airline cabins of fewer seats than the Airbus standard layout.
Slots at Zurich, the fleet needed and a weekly schedule.
A disruption simulation with EASA crew duty limits, the Zurich night closure and three recovery variants, priced with EU 261.
A rule set with published charges: Zurich Airport, skyguide, Eurocontrol, fuel and exchange rates.
Fares and revenue anchored on published airline yields, with a competitor cross-check.
The widebody extension: the A350-1000ULR to Australia and Honolulu, the A350-900 to Asia, the Americas, Cape Town and Jeddah.
Crew planning: trips, yearly headcount and a monthly roster.

Data and dates

Every source the simulation uses, with the date it was read or published.

Study by Simone Bernasconi, Avalle.

Recovery plan

On time Delayed Cancelled Original plan Aircraft grounded or Zurich closed

Aircraft shown in the timelineDays in Zurich time

TimeAircraft

What is verified and what is schematic

Schedule. The built-in plan is the network of 12 October 2026 with three fleets. A321XLR: the revision of 11 October 2026 (48 weekly rotations, 12 routes, 15 cities) plus Neom Bay three times a week, nine aircraft; Hyderabad stays out. A350-1000ULR: the Sydney and Baltimore loops, the Hong Kong and Brisbane loops, Melbourne and Honolulu on 13 aircraft. A350-900: 11 routes to Asia, the Americas, Cape Town and Jeddah on 11 aircraft. Block times are modeled from published schedules on comparable routes (step 3 for the A321XLR, step 10 for the widebodies), with the detours around closed airspace included.
Zurich runways. Runway in use follows the airport's published concept by time of day: landings on 34 before 07:00 (09:00 at weekends), on 14 during the day, on 28 from 21:00 (20:00 at weekends); takeoffs on 28 or 16 during the day and on 32 in the morning and evening, where the airport also uses 34 and, in the morning, 28. An A321XLR heavier than runway 28 allows (about 92 t, read from the Airbus takeoff chart) uses runway 16. Widebodies take off on 16 in the day concept and on 32 otherwise; the Australia departures need 16 and are timed in the day concept. Weather-driven changes and public holidays are not modeled. Sources: Flughafen Zürich, Kanton Aargau, aeroTELEGRAPH.
Runway geometry. Runway positions and lengths at all 33 airports of the plan are from OurAirports. At outstations the longest runway is used and its direction is assumed from the route, because wind is not modeled.
Departure and approach tracks are schematic. Published instrument procedures are not included. Each takeoff runs along the runway, climbs straight ahead and turns onto course. Each landing joins a straight final of about 12 nm with a 3 degree descent. Takeoffs from Zurich runway 16 turn left, as the airport's left-turn procedure does; the exact track is not the published one. Height above ground is exaggerated at wide zoom so that climbs and descents stay visible.
Routes. Tracks are great circles. Astana and Almaty follow the path south of Russian and Ukrainian airspace built for this study. Ahmedabad, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and the widebody legs to Asia, Australia and Cape Town follow geometric tracks that stay 25 nm outside every country under an EASA do-not-operate bulletin on 11 October 2026, outside Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and off the closed waters of the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, the northern Black Sea and the southern Caspian. They are planning tracks, not filed routes. The Airspace button shows those areas on the globe.
Recovery rules. The plan first avoids cancellations, then minimizes total arrival delay. It may give a flight to another free aircraft, delay it or cancel it. A rotation moves only to another aircraft of the same type. It keeps the turn at Zurich (2 hours for the A321XLR, 2 h 30 for the widebodies), the planned turns away from Zurich, no movements at Zurich between 23:30 and 06:00 or at Sydney between 23:00 and 06:00, and EASA crew duty limits with a 60-minute report time (CS FTL.1.205): two pilots on the A321XLR, with a third pilot from Dar es Salaam to Zurich (14 hours); on the widebodies two, three or four pilots per leg, and the legs beyond 18 hours carried as approved under an individual scheme, so a delay on those legs counts against the planned duty. A flight already on its way always returns.
Your own schedule. The Schedule view reads CSV and XLSX files and writes the flight plan back in the same layout. Airports and runways come from OurAirports (3,244 airports with scheduled service). A Type column sets the aircraft type of each aircraft. UTC offsets come from the IANA time zone database for the week of 14 September 2026. For routes outside the study, block times you enter are used as given; the estimate offered from distance is a starting value only. The takeoff weight that selects the Zurich runway of the A321XLR is estimated from distance on the Airbus payload-range curve.
Analysis. The Analysis view checks the schedule in use against a rule set in five groups and prices it with published charges: Zurich Airport Charges Regulation 3.9, the skyguide approach charge, Eurocontrol unit rates for October 2026, the IATA jet fuel price and ECB exchange rates. Crew, maintenance, ownership and handling rates are empty until you enter them. Sources are listed in that view.
Fares. The Fares view holds one-way fares for 24 booking classes from both ends of every market and turns them into revenue per week, month, quarter and year. Fares start as estimates built on the revenue per passenger-kilometer that Lufthansa Group reports by traffic region for 2025; the split over cabins and classes is an estimate of this tool. You can change any fare on the page or upload your own.
Not modeled. Individual crews and their rest, passengers and connections, slots for re-timed flights, maintenance, fuel and winds. The search stops after a fixed number of plans, so on very heavy disruption it shows the best plan found.