Jetstar Delays/Cancellations

[Melburnian1]

On Monday 15 February JQ705, the 0830 MEL - HBA is expected to depart at 1000 while JQ464 to BNK has a less severe departure delay of an anticipated 25 minutes to 1040. Later, JQ474 from MEL to NTL is suggested as departing at 1335 instead of 1205, so this will be due to the late running HBA - MEL flight formed by JQ705.

Earlier, JQ560, the 0730 MEL to BNE took off at 0849, about an hour late.

JQ508, the 0945 from MEL to SYD is expected to take off at 1027.

Like May and November, February is one of the three quietest months for domestic air travel due principally to much lower levels of leisure travel, yet JQ cannot operate flights like these punctually.

UPDATE:

JQ484, the 1355 hours NTL - BNE will instead depart at 1540, almost two hours late while the MEL-bound JQ477 should be an hour and 35 minutes late when it departs at 1555 from the Steel Capital.

JQ516, the 1615 hours from MEL northwards to SYD has been cancelled.

JQ739 from MEL to LST is projected to depart an hour late at 1750 in the late afternoon. Earlier, JQ703, the 1550 hours from MEL to HBA is altered to depart at 1630.

JQ780 from MEL to ADL is forecast to depart at 2015 tonight, 35 minutes late while JQ478 from MEL to NTL will depart an hour late tonight at 2100 hours, teh second NTL flight to be badly late today ex MEL and not a great picture for good timeliness.

 

[Grimace1]

It appears JST677 from Darwin to Melbourne is returning back to Darwin right now; reason unknown at this stage.

 

[Melburnian1]

Grimace1, many thanks: JQ677 was as you suggest in the end 'cancelled.'

Strangely no early morning JQ flight ex MEL on Tuesday 16 February has been cancelled that I can quickly see.

 

[Melburnian1]

JQ3 from SYD to HNL has been delayed from 1755 hours late this afternoon (Tuesday 16 February) to 1930 this evening in its departure. The returning JQ4 will therefore be late as well.

 

[coco50]

JQ3 from SYD to HNL has been delayed from 1755 hours late this afternoon (Tuesday 16 February) to 1930 this evening in its departure. The returning JQ4 will therefore be late as well.

Do any other airlines (other than JQ) have delays or cancellations?

 

[mannej]

Do any other airlines (other than JQ) have delays or cancellations?

Going by number of posts it would seem as if QF is the only other airline with delays or cancellations.

 

[Melburnian1]

mannej, if you took the time to look, you may discover that there were at last count more than 30 separate threads for individual airlines and that most have multiple posts re delays or cancellations.

There is very extensive coverage of some delays that have previously affected VA for instance.

In the last couple of days I have covered two or three MU delays - some significant while NZ also copped a mention recently.

There are 580 'likes' - often through gritted teeth of the QF delays/ cancellations thread but when I last checked not a soul had 'liked' the Tigerair (Australia) delays and cancellations thread so that is an indication of the relative level of interest. The JQ thread is the second most read after QF so again that tells us something: this may be AFFers who largely use QF but occasionally due to flying on a particular route or at a certain time must use JQ, even if not by choice.

However the most interest of AFFers is clearly with events affecting QF, as AFF members seem from the discussion in other threads to fly QF even more as a percentage of total flights than the general public. Witness the huge interest on this website in relation to Qantas' frequent flyer scheme compared with that of Virgin Australia's.

However mannej, you deserve all our thanks, as you cajoled me into starting threads for other airlines as you might recall.

 

[eastwest101]

JQ3 from SYD to HNL has been delayed from 1755 hours late this afternoon (Tuesday 16 February) to 1930 this evening in its departure. The returning JQ4 will therefore be late as well.

Seems possible that Jetstar are are either having problems with the reliability of their B787s or possibly crewing them or fillling them with paying passengers.

I was just looking at the Jetstar Source and for the period say 5th Feb to 15th Feb they had a total of 13x JQi B787 sector cancellations vs 14x JQd A320/A321 sector cancellations. Considering that they have about 59 A320 and A321s in mostly JQd service and only 11 B787s in mostly JQi service that means that the B787 fleet seems to be over-represented in cancellations at the moment.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the majority of the B787 cancellations have been DPS and HNL services, the JQd cancellations seem pretty evenly distributed between MEL, SYD, BNE and PER sectors.

 

[Melburnian1]

eastwest101, much appreciated. One wonders what happens to all these passengers - there is no guarantee on some of the routes that there will be a QFi flight at a similar time, if at all.

There have been previous suggestions on AFF that JQ has a shortage of either tech or cabin crew or both, but yours is the first claim that any such lack of staff is particularly affecting the B787s rather than other aircraft types.

Also baffling is that the two MEL - PER rotations that were often cancelled at the peak of school holidays when demand was sky high are now operating again - or at least they are today (0640 and 1600 hours departures ex MEL.)

 

[eastwest101]

eastwest101, much appreciated. One wonders what happens to all these passengers - there is no guarantee on some of the routes that there will be a QFi flight at a similar time, if at all.

There have been previous suggestions on AFF that JQ has a shortage of either tech or cabin crew or both, but yours is the first claim that any such lack of staff is particularly affecting the B787s rather than other aircraft types.

Well I can't claim to be entirely sure but was just thinking that there are really just 3 "show stoppers" that cause outright flight cancellations - either the aircraft is broken, or crew out of hours or position or there are insufficient passengers to make a profit (if you remove the obviously weird and unanticipated stuff such as volcanic ash clouds or weather). With the crewing issue - people I have spoken to in VA and also in JQ have mentioned crewing rosters and hours for cabin crew and flight crew are being squeezed and training/recruitment are in slow motion mode from 2015 onwards. I have lost a lot of my QF contacts so not sure whats happening over there but I think its fair to summarize that all airlines are trying to maximise revenue with the existing equipment while the price of fuel is decreasing to rebuild balance sheets after the capacity war a few years ago. Its also no coincidece that overall capacity has been cut in places and airfares are often going up not down.

 

[Melburnian1]

Agree eastwest101 - for instance VA has made no secret that it is no longer aggressively expanding capacity. While off topic on this thread, it is also selling some of its E190s despite (or perhaps because of) their comfortable seating for passengers in the two plus two configuration.

 

[mannej]

mannej, if you took the time to look, you may discover that there were at last count more than 30 separate threads for individual airlines and that most have multiple posts re delays or cancellations.

There is very extensive coverage of some delays that have previously affected VA for instance.

Whilst I acknowledge the threads pertaining to other airlines, the balance in particular VA is not there. If you look at QF's 2315 posts, JQ with 391 posts, yet VA only has 208 posts. Whilst you are quick to post QF delays (nothing wrong with that), there have been times where well noted and publicised VA delays have not been posted in the same manner.

Yes you will note the "majority" fly QF on here, but perhaps the number of likes could also relate to the number of posts (i.e pops up more in ones activity feed). It would also seem that there are a fair few on here that also fly VA so I am not quite sure that reason flys as much as what you suggest...

 

[coco50]

mannej, if you took the time to look, you may discover that there were at last count more than 30 separate threads for individual airlines and that most have multiple posts re delays or cancellations.

There is very extensive coverage of some delays that have previously affected VA for instance.

In the last couple of days I have covered two or three MU delays - some significant while NZ also copped a mention recently.

There are 580 'likes' - often through gritted teeth of the QF delays/ cancellations thread but when I last checked not a soul had 'liked' the Tigerair (Australia) delays and cancellations thread so that is an indication of the relative level of interest. The JQ thread is the second most read after QF so again that tells us something: this may be AFFers who largely use QF but occasionally due to flying on a particular route or at a certain time must use JQ, even if not by choice.

However the most interest of AFFers is clearly with events affecting QF, as AFF members seem from the discussion in other threads to fly QF even more as a percentage of total flights than the general public. Witness the huge interest on this website in relation to Qantas' frequent flyer scheme compared with that of Virgin Australia's.

However mannej, you deserve all our thanks, as you cajoled me into starting threads for other airlines as you might recall.

While on-time departure and arrival is a significant KPI for any airline there are so many variables that can cause delays. I am not going to ennumerate them here, but the amazing thing is that many flights do leave on time and arrive on time. What amuses me is that when there is a delay announced, the less frequent travelling public make the claim: "I'll never fly with xx_X again." I think that airlines need better PR with customers when there is a delay. Uncertainty is not a friend of the traveller.

 

[Melburnian1]

coco50, different airlines communicate cancellations and delays to passengers (and meeters and greeters) in varying ways. Some do it well, and honestly; others decline to inform those who would like to know as to the real reasons behind a delay or a cancellation. I agree that few travellers like uncertainty.

However it is not 'amazing' that so many flights arrive and depart on time. Airlines, like any other public transport provider, publish timetables that are agreed to by in airlines' case a number of authorities. The flying passenger expects that these will be adhered to (except for unpredictable events such as closure of an airfield or severe operating restrictions due to weather, or some lunatic proceeding into a 'secure' area without undergoing the mandatory check in which case a terminal may have to be cleared of passengers.)

 

[coco50]

coco50, different airlines communicate cancellations and delays to passengers (and meeters and greeters) in varying ways. Some do it well, and honestly; others decline to inform those who would like to know as to the real reasons behind a delay or a cancellation. I agree that few travellers like uncertainty.

However it is not 'amazing' that so many flights arrive and depart on time. Airlines, like any other public transport provider, publish timetables that are agreed to by in airlines' case a number of authorities. The flying passenger expects that these will be adhered to (except for unpredictable events such as closure of an airfield or severe operating restrictions due to weather, or some lunatic proceeding into a 'secure' area without undergoing the mandatory check in which case a terminal may have to be cleared of passengers.)

I still reckon that it is amazing that so many flights depart and arrive on time. Not only the weather - we are generally blessed here in Australia, but in the US, a high pressure moving down from Canada can wreak havoc between the west coast and the east coat. And that is only one variable. How about a pax that doesn't board but has baggage checked in, or paperwork that is not complete even though the A/C is ready to depart, or flights put into a holding pattern because of some incident on the ground at a destination airport, or problems with catering. All this before considering mechanical problems with the aircraft. Airlines do a wonderful job, achieving on time targets - and I haven't even touched on a myriad of other factors that could disrupt schedules. Anyway that's my view.

 

[Melburnian1]

JQ432 from MEL to OOL departed 64 minutes late at 1104 on Wednesday 17 February. JQ203 from SYD to AKL has been delayed from 1145 to a forecast 1225 in leaving while later in the day a 45 minute expected delay is the case for JQ766 from SYD tom ADL that will depart at 1430 hours.

coco50, all your points have some validity but the vast majority of airline schedules have some padding in them.

 

[coco50]

JQ432 from MEL to OOL departed 64 minutes late at 1104 on Wednesday 17 February. JQ203 from SYD to AKL has been delayed from 1145 to a forecast 1225 in leaving while later in the day a 45 minute expected delay is the case for JQ766 from SYD tom ADL that will depart at 1430 hours.

coco50, all your points have some validity but the vast majority of airline schedules have some padding in them.

From your frequent posts about JQ delays (and we're only talking about one relatively small airline) you seem to be making a ringing endorsement of my points rather than them having some validity. Just as well schedules have some padding in them. I never made a schedule that didn't have padding in it. Good on the airlines for making such a good effort!

 

[Melburnian1]

Whilst I acknowledge the threads pertaining to other airlines, the balance in particular VA is not there. If you look at QF's 2315 posts, JQ with 391 posts, yet VA only has 208 posts. Whilst you are quick to post QF delays (nothing wrong with that), there have been times where well noted and publicised VA delays have not been posted in the same manner.

Yes you will note the "majority" fly QF on here, but perhaps the number of likes could also relate to the number of posts (i.e pops up more in ones activity feed). It would also seem that there are a fair few on here that also fly VA so I am not quite sure that reason flys as much as what you suggest...

mannej, you are most welcome to contribute to these threads should you so desire.

I may simply not have seen the VA delays. Like all of us I cannot be 'on' a single Internet site 24 hours a day, seven days a week and sometimes like many of us when I am away I decide to have an Internet-free break for a while. If you look back you will see some storms and other such weather have been featured through these pages including as to how it affects VA - sometimes the latter has many delays.

Overall, QF has more flights and therefore connecting passengers, so it is logical that QF will have more delays than VA (all other things being equal.)

QF also has a far larger international network than VA yet QF for its A388s and B744s can at times completely lack a spare aircraft should one fail. The adverse effect of what JohnPhelan rightly called 'rolling 24 hour delays' can be severe.

Delays to international flights are of particular interest because let's say QF28 from SCL to SYD is badly late: this can mean that QF25, in a truly worst case scenario, is delayed overnight in SYD. This has more ramifications for passengers (and those meeting them, or relying on them being in so Tokyo at a particular time) than a half hour delay to a VA or QF domestic flight.)

 

[Melburnian1]

JQ2 ex HNL is running about an hour late and should be in MEL on 17 February by 1740 hours - aircraft is B788 VH-VKE.

JQ516, the 1615 hours MEL to SYD did not take off until 1721 and hence aircraft VH-VWY, an A321, should arrive at approximately 1832, 52 minutes late.

 

[Melburnian1]

The Thursday 18 February JQ43 from MEL to DPS is forecast to be badly delayed in departing from 0955 to 1600 hours with arrival at 1900 tonight Bali time as opposed to the timetabled 1255.

JQ219 from MEL across to ZQN has a less severe delay with departure at 1050 not 1020. JQ705 from MEL to HBA is departing at 0855 rather than 0830.