How far forward??

Just asking as a matter of interest.
How far in advance are individual aircraft initially scheduled for routes? I know that they can change right up to the day, but logistically speaking, do VS schedule an aircraft six months in advance? one month?
I take it each home airport (LHR,LGW,MAN) works as a seperate cost/logistics centre?

[Bazz]

I thought from the VS staffers here that it was a week to 10 days?

Allocation of specific aircraft is generally 14days prior to the flight, I often find though this can change, and often does, during the 14days leading up to a flight.

Hi AlanA

A particular type for any flight is planned ages in advance, eg types are shown right through to the end of Oct 2005 in the system currently. Ops take over the programme at -14days as Vrocking says and all flights are allocated to a specific aircraft, taking into account maintenance requirements, performance restrictions, etc. They are obviously liable to change right up until departure time though.

As for logistics, most things are co-ordinated by Ops/Crewing/Flight Planning in Head Office although some things obviously need to be done locally. I don't know much about the costs side of things I'm afraid.

Cheers
Alan