Jetstar Delays/Cancellations

[ozbeachbabe]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Could be a crew issue?

I think staffing levels may be a bit lean at the moment - both flight crew and ground crew.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

ozbeachbabe, that's a bit surprising because consumer confidence is not super high at present. In that environment we might expect staff turnover to be relatively low as individuals hold onto their jobs. And I don't imagine JQ would have a lot of tech crew 9or cabin crew) anywhere near close to retirement age: wouldn't they have a lot of staff from early 20s to mid 40s, typically? JQ hasn't expanded much at all in the last few months has it?

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Once again, JQ968, the 1030 hours from MEL to PER has been cancelled (Friday 14 August 2015) as has the flight it forms, JQ971, the 1325 hours from PER.

Added to the late running (including an overnight delay to a QF flight last night) and the QF group is not having a happy time on its transcontinental routes.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

While not showing as such on the QF website, the Sydney Airport website indicates that JQ4 (which is also codeshare QF284) on Friday 14 August (the 0915 departure) has been cancelled. This flight would normally arrive in SYD at 1535 on a Saturday afternoon. It appears that JQ3 last night (nominally ex SYD at 1755 on Friday) was also cancelled last night although again the QF website is silent on this.

One wonders if passenger numbers between Oz and HNL have crashed due to the 'low' Australian dollar (versus the US dollar) and hence JQ and QF are combining booked passengers into a single flight when they can, as on Fridays the nicely numbered JQ3 and QF3 depart SYD if the timetable fully operates within a few hours of one another.

 

[TheInsider]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

In my 12 years at qantas, and friends at jetstar. Not once in my experience has any of those 2 airlines cancelled due to lack of numbers on their aircraft on the day of departure.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

JQ35 from MEL to DPS has been altered from its timetabled 1715 hours departure on Saturday 15 August 2015 to 0230 on Sunday 16. I cannot see an international arrival that is late but JQ has to transfer quite a number of aircraft from international to domestic terminals or vice versa each week if I recall.

TheInsider, flights may be cancelled say a week before departure, or at any time. From talking to other airline staff, cancellations due to insufficient 'both way' bookings are a fact of life, but they may not necessarily be initiated on the timetabled day of departure. One example of a route with extremely high cancellation rates is MEL - SYD - MEL (not a comment directed at JQ or QF: it can also be VA or - more rarely because it has fewer flights a day - TT.) Airlines are not altruists and they are not like government-owned rail or bus operators in urban, country and interstate areas who stick 100 per cent to published timetables. Granted, many flight cancellations may be for weather or equipment failure reasons, or lack of crew members at times, but there are some that occur due to low bookings.

Routes to and from PER are good examples of previously published airline timetables where demand has (if we want to use a euphemism - 'moderated') reduced due to unforseen extrenal factors and may well be continuing to decline given the predicament the iron ore sector finds itself in.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Todya's JQ7 and JQ8 are both delayed.

JQ7 running almost 7 hours late, and the return 2.5 hours late. Inconvenient for people flying back and wanting to return to work tomorrow.

If on the flight back from SIN - what time to arrive for check-in? Do pax arrive with the new departure time in mind? Or do the desks close at the standard time?

 

[CatherineC]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Due to fly to Perth on JQ 968 (10.30am) tomorrow (Monday). Received word this afternoon that flight has been cancelled due to 'engineering requirements". Not sure what that means but have been put on a Qantas flight a couple of hours later so a good outcome. The jetstar fare was very cheap and I added a plus bundle before the changes were made so quite happy to now be on a Qantas a330......

 

[jakob01]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

The JQ968 MEL-PER (and returning JQ971 PER-MEL) have been cancelled more than they have flown this past week - add today to that tally. In my experiences, those have usually had a pretty full load. I wonder if it is a light Qantas load on flights throughout the day that sets this in motion - the ability to spread the passengers from a JQ Airbus A320 to fill other flights. From an economic point of view it makes perfect sense. Just wondering anyone's experience with this - how much warning do you get?

If you are emailed or sms'd the previous day of your cancellation and given a revised flight, that would be quite acceptable. Or do you turn up at the airport, see the Cancelled status and then have to join the maddening queue in the JQ customer service line to find out your fate? (Any good flyer would know - advance check-in and HLO - to avoid that at all costs.) I would find it unreasonable to queue for 30 minutes to be told I am on a flight in six hours' time (worse still, the late night JQ MLB-PER run which leave 12 hours later, or even worse, the next day..)

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

jakob01, thank you as this adds to what I contributed above and is useful information for anyone contemplating flying to PER.

Your hypothesis may be correct: it has to be low bookings on either JQ or QF or indeed a combination. You are implying that QF knows it would receive more flak if it cancelled a QF mainline flight rather than a JQ one due to the former having more passengers with FF 'status.'

By the way, 'Melbourne International Airport - Tullamarine' is abbreviated to 'MEL' as the code not 'MLB' which is in Florida, USA and also an 'International Airport.' Very occasionally a passenger who thought he or she was going to one finds themselves arriving at the other. Yes, odd, but allegedly true.

CatherineC, good that you were happy with the change but someone cutting it fine with timings may not be so pleased.

The bottom line may be if you want to be in PER at a particular time, book on TT at an equivalent price, or VA/ QF at a higher typical fare as JQ seems unreliable.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Your hypothesis may be correct: it has to be low bookings on either JQ or QF or indeed a combination.

It could be a crew issue (not enough crew for scheduled flights). It could be an aircraft availability issue.

It does however seem this is more likely an issue within JQ's control however - rather than being a 'one-off' (even if that 'one-off' happened on a couple of days by coincidence).

 

[CatherineC]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

I was notified by email and text the afternoon before I was due to leave Melbourne. I was quickly on the phone to Jetstar and alternative Qantas flight booked. Yes, I was fortunate as I didn't have any need to be in Perth at any particular time so good outcome for me. The Qantas flight to Perth was close to full and I was stuck in the rear .... ( but far better than a Jetstar flight!)

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

JQ7 today (Fri 29 August 2015) is forecast to be delayed from 1100 to a 1700 hours departure from MEL to SIN. This is because JQ1036 from DPS was apparently meant to land at 0555 this morning but has been delayed until 1514, more than nine hours late.

JQ8 into MEL on Saturday 30 August is estimated to be three hours late in arriving at 0945 ex SIN.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

About four hours late, the 1405 hours SYD to HBA JQ725 has just taken off from SYD, being operated by A320 VH-VGA. As it is not due in HBA until 2021, it is going to be playing it extremely fine with the SYD 2300 hours curfew if it say picks up a few minutes on the way down and then departs back at 2050. it will sneak in to SYD with perhaps 15 to 20 minutes to spare.

In these situations the vast majority of the time sees the aircraft arriving back prior to curfew but on a small number of occasions, it does not and is not granted an exemption by the 'delegate.'

UPDATE: QF has now adjusted the arrival and departure times in HBA to 2005 and 2035, with SYD arrival at 2225 so it should not be cutting it as fine as I had indicated. However, yesterday (Saturday 28 August 2015) JQ726 overstayed in HBA for about an hour so for that to recur would not be helpful tonight.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

A JQ flight today (Tuesday 1 September) (213?) was three hours late departing MEL for AKL.

It is most often QF that has problems between MEL and HBA but tonight JQ713 has been delayed from 1600 until a suggested 1915 hours in departing.

The return JQ714 is forecast to be back in MEL tonight at 2230 in lieu of 1900 hours.

 

[yohy?!]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

In my 12 years at qantas, and friends at jetstar. Not once in my experience has any of those 2 airlines cancelled due to lack of numbers on their aircraft on the day of departure.

I had a syd-hkg flight cancelled a few years back due to low pax numbers (the old QF81 I think). This was about 3 hours before departure as I was enjoying the F lounge for the first time.

About 50 of us were shunted to the CX flight leaving at the same time, wasn't long after that the service was pulled all together as QF slashed capacity on the HKG routes from the east coast. The first host was great and had me rebooked, I was very happy to get an op up to W at the gate too!

 

[Flyerqf]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

JQ1 MEL-HNL has been delayed from 6.40pm this evening to 8am tomorrow morning.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

JQ973, the redeye from PER to MEL was cancelled today. It normally arrives MEL at 0720. JQ can be unreliable on the transcontinental routes. QF, VA or even TT are better alternatives.

JQ703, the 0810 from MEL to HBA did not take off until 0940 this morning (Wed 9 September 2015) so the return flight, JQ702 is not expected back in MEL until 1235 in lieu of 1110. JQ474, the 1150 from MEL to NTL is forecast to be delayed in leaving until 1305 as a result. In turn, JQ477 from NTL to MEL is suggested as arriving in the latter at 1655 instead of 1605.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Adding to Flyerqf's information above, QF2 from HNL to MEL will now not arrive until 0515 on Thursday 10 September 2015, 10 hours and 35 minutes late.

 

[OATEK]

Re: General Jetstar Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

adding to flyerqf's information above, qf2 from hnl to mel will now not arrive until 0515 on thursday 10 september 2015, 10 hours and 35 minutes late.

jq2?...............