Perth Airport fuel issues, many flights cancelled/diverted

[Must...Fly!]

Serious question - is QF9 (or any other flight) able to land at Heathrow Airport after 11pm? I thought there was a curfew there.

It's not really a ban as such, they are allowed to operate some limited movements outside the "normal" hours. One would assume that it has all been approved.

 

[jb747]

Won't pretend to know how these things work, but that seems like a surprising lack of resilience for a critical airport function

This is Australia. WA even. Why are you surprised?

Serious question - is QF9 (or any other flight) able to land at Heathrow Airport after 11pm? I thought there was a curfew there.

I'm not in touch with the current rules, but I think there was some level of flexibility.

Tour of duty for the QF10 was around 21 hours. Wouldn't have been legal under the rules I flew under. Again, I'm not current with what is being done now, but I expect that any change will have been detrimental to the crews.

 

[Himeno]

Serious question - is QF9 (or any other flight) able to land at Heathrow Airport after 11pm? I thought there was a curfew there.

Night flights

Blank

www.heathrow.com

The "curfew" is no commercial flights scheduled overnight (no departures between 22:50 - 06:00, no arrivals between 22:55 - 04:45).
Flights outside those hours are allowed based on a total yearly movements limit and noise quotas.

 

[oz_mark]

Word on the street is that air got into the system somewhere, and it took time to bleed the system.

 

[docjames]

I’m a little intrigued at the decision to divert QF10 to KTA - QF10 must have had a lot on onward passengers (to MEL/elsewhere) to be worth diverting to KTA rather than land in PER (and then be unable to refuel there). If the majority had been PER-bound, then perhaps landing in PER and “terminating” would have been preferable. Or there was some other factor (? weather, other diversions, excess fuel burn on flight)?

I assume “landing nearby” wasn’t an option due to a) it’s PER - nowhere of any size is nearby and b) small airports nearby would have limited fuel storage/availability themselves so as not to manage large numbers of diversions.

They are also lucky the QF10 crew and cabin crew didn’t time out in KTA……

Might be one for @jb747 or @AviatorInsight to enlighten us.

 

[elanshin]

I’m a little intrigued at the decision to divert QF10 to KTA - QF10 must have had a lot on onward passengers (to MEL/elsewhere) to be worth diverting to KTA rather than land in PER (and then be unable to refuel there). If the majority had been PER-bound, then perhaps landing in PER and “terminating” would have been preferable. Or there was some other factor (? weather, other diversions, excess fuel burn on flight)?

I assume “landing nearby” wasn’t an option due to a) it’s PER - nowhere of any size is nearby and b) small airports nearby would have limited fuel storage/availability themselves so as not to manage large numbers of diversions.

They are also lucky the QF10 crew and cabin crew didn’t time out in KTA……

Might be one for @jb747 or @AviatorInsight to enlighten us.

I suspect it's less to do with onwards flying passengers and more to do with onward flying plane.
QF 787s likely don't have a lot of slack.

 

[jb747]

I’m a little intrigued at the decision to divert QF10 to KTA - QF10 must have had a lot on onward passengers (to MEL/elsewhere) to be worth diverting to KTA rather than land in PER (and then be unable to refuel there). If the majority had been PER-bound, then perhaps landing in PER and “terminating” would have been preferable. Or there was some other factor (? weather, other diversions, excess fuel burn on flight)?

The company would not want the aircraft stuck there. After a diversion, you could at least ensure you have enough fuel to get to somewhere that you could fill up again, even if that means Adelaide/Darwin/Manangatang. It would be unlikely to have sufficient fuel on arrival otherwise.

I assume “landing nearby” wasn’t an option due to a) it’s PER - nowhere of any size is nearby and b) small airports nearby would have limited fuel storage/availability themselves so as not to manage large numbers of diversions.

I think things have improved a little, but overall Perth is extremely isolated, with little in the way of diversions within reasonable reach. And what there is, will fill up quickly.

They are also lucky the QF10 crew and cabin crew didn’t time out in KTA……

I'm surprised that they didn't run out of hours. The new slavery rules perhaps? And that's perhaps another issue. Do you really want to be on an aircraft with a crew who have been at work for so long. They might have bunks, but decent sleep is a rarity.