Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[Melburnian1]

JessicaTam and Mel_Traveller, my apologies: I have had to leave a PR flight in SYD when it was doing the triangle; I have not used AI and assumed (incorrectly) that it followed the same procedure.

 

[Dmac6345]

JessicaTam, in Australia are not airlines 'paranoid' about not allowing passengers on board while refuelling occurs? Likewise, happy to be corrected but that's my occasional experience in previous years.

The now largely discontinued practice of international airlines operating triangular routings (such as DEL - SYD - MEL - DEL or the same for MNL, or vice versa, to name two, one on AI, the other PR) invariably saw passengers required to alight if say the flight first called at SYD but the passengers' destination was MEL.

QF suggests that the delayed QF63 will arrive in JNB at 2042 tonight. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to detach the engine from VH-OJS. For the engineers among us, is it a complex procedure or (in engineering or maintenance challenges) relatively straightforward?

I assume that this aircraft, OJS will be the one heading back to SYD tonight South African time, as surely placing the engine on the defective B744 currently sitting on the JNB tarmac would take quite a while.

Should there be further unanticipated delays, then the SYD curfew may again come into play. The flight back (nonstop) is normally a trifle under 12 hours.

Not sure about that. I was stuck in Canberra the other week for 4 hours whilst waiting for a fuel truck to top up the A330 that was redirected. Front door opened for fresh air and passengers still in their seats, while we used all the fuel from 3 trucks.

 

[Melburnian1]

The 1900 hours QF20 (VH-QPC) appears to still be at the gate at MNL at 2045 Philippine time (2345 AEDT) on Wednesday 6 January so not quite sure what is going on, as it was not overly late coming in from Sydney.

Subject to change, but at this stage QPC is forming the QF23 at 0955 ex SYD so if it has not departed MNL in the next hour or so, QF23 on 7 January may be delayed.

 

[Quickstatus]

I doubt it. Last time they did a V-pod (QF73 in 2011), they had to stop in HNL and carried almost no pax due to the extra weight of the engine.

400 pax @ 100 kg (and their luggage) = 40 tonnes. The engine as I understand from media release is about 10 tonnes. So there is some 20-30 tonnes spare (assuming MTOW is also reduced). So should be able to carry lots of passengers

 

[Melburnian1]

Further to post number 2143, QF20 on Wednesday 6 January departed MNL four hours and 10 minutes late at 2310 and should be in SYD today (Thursday 7) at 0945, three hours and 35 minutes behind time.

QF500, the first SYD to BNE flight on 7 January (due out at 0605) was cancelled.

 

[jb747]

JessicaTam, in Australia are not airlines 'paranoid' about not allowing passengers on board while refuelling occurs? Likewise, happy to be corrected but that's my occasional experience in previous years.

Refuelling is pretty well ALWAYS happening when the passengers are boarding. The only mention of refuelling relevant to passengers is that they are asked to NOT do up their seat belts, and the seat belt sign in off. You can use the seat belt sign being turned on as a reliable indicator of the fuelling being completed, as that's the first thing we do after the phone call telling us that it's complete.

 

[jb747]

400 pax @ 100 kg (and their luggage) = 40 tonnes. The engine as I understand from media release is about 10 tonnes. So there is some 20-30 tonnes spare (assuming MTOW is also reduced). So should be able to carry lots of passengers

For a planned landing at HNL, passenger weight would not have been an issue.

 

[Melburnian1]

Thank you jb747. I should have added 'on some airlines other than QF.'

QF509, the 0725 BNE - SYD has been cancelled while further south, QF171, the 1030 MEL to WLG is expected to depart 70 minutes late and arrive at 1710 hours in lieu of 1600. QF172, the 1700 back from WLG to the Victorian capital will similarly be an hour behind.

The delayed QF64 has yet to push back at JNB, so time is ticking away closer to the SYD 2300 hours curfew this evening - but it still has a couple of hours in which to hopefully depart South Africa.

UPDATE: The delayed QF64 departed JNB at 2302 local time on Wednesday 6 January, two days, four hours and 12 minutes late. It should arrive SYD at 2100 this evening (Thursday 7 January.) As predicted above, VH-OJS is operating this "Monday" QF64 so the previously failed aircraft would be having its new engine fitted ready for departure tonight South African time (tomorrow morning - Friday - AEDT), 25 hours late as the "Wednesday" QF64.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF73, the B744 1500 hours SYD to SFO, has been delayed until 2230 tonight. I assume that it is awaiting the predicted 2100 hours arrival of the Monday 4 January much delayed QF64 from JNB, which as above is now coming into SYD at 2100 hours on Thursday 7 January. QF73's arrival in SFO should be at 1640 on Thursday.

This is cutting it fine for the curfew although based on what has been achieved previously, QF should be able to turn around the B744 in about an hour and 40 minutes.

 

[docjames]

I wonder if the "failed" engine will be ferried back on QF64, or whether it will be freighted (air or sea) back?

Presumably there must be 2 QF64s in coming days (as the outbound 5 holer returns and the inbound 3 awaiting 4 holer comes back too)?

 

[Melburnian1]

docjames, an interesting question re freight. Sea freight, presumably via Singapore to Australia, might take a few weeks but would be much cheaper.

While the "failed" engine may have SYD as its destination, I do not know if it has to be repaired elsewhere. Advice from LAMEs would be great.

Yes, the Wednesday 6 1850 hours QF64 from JNB is delayed to an estimated 2000 hours departure on Thursday 7 (0400 Friday 8 AEDT) while the "normal" Thursday 7 January QF64 back to SYD should also operate - the latter is just about to hopefully leave SYD as I write - see below. All this late running with one QF64 running more than two days late can become quite confusing, especially since planes are swapped as occurred at JNB a small number of hours ago.

The Thursday 7 January QF63 has been delayed in its departure from SYD from 1135 until a forecast 1220 this afternoon. Another delay affecting the JNB route on which (at least for nonstop flights ex and to SYD) QF has a monopoly.

 

[moa999]

Saw somewhere else that it will come back via ship. Less urgency

 

[docjames]

Saw somewhere else that it will come back via ship. Less urgency

Thanks.

8910

 

[Flyerqf]

VH-OJM is scheduled to return to service as QF25 tonight, after maintenance. This will help get back the 747 flights back on schedule. Tomorrow should be last day of rolling delays, fingers crossed.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF117 departed SYD 42 minutes late at 1402 on 7 January with HKG arrival likely 40 minutes late at 2020 hours this evening.

QF75 from SYD to YVR has been delayed from 1905 to 2000 in its Thursday 7 January 2016 departure, with the forecast arrival being 1430, half an hour late. Since its recent launch, this seasonal flight has been pretty punctual.

Wednesday 6 January's QF12 departed LAX 59 minutes late at 2329 with SYD arrival on Friday 8 the even hour late - 0930 in the morning. The B744 flight QF16 is indicated as delayed from 2320 Wednesday night to 0100 Thursday morning with the resultant BNE arrival at 0835 tomorrow morning (Friday 8 January.)

 

[Quickstatus]

I wonder if the "failed" engine will be ferried back on QF64, or whether it will be freighted (air or sea) back?

Presumably there must be 2 QF64s in coming days (as the outbound 5 holer returns and the inbound 3 awaiting 4 holer comes back too)?

QF says by sea

 

[Melburnian1]

On Friday 8 January, QF405, the 0630 hours SYD - MEL and QF153, the 0730 MEL - AKL are cancelled.

On Thursday 7, B744 VH-OJM (which only returned to carrying passengers today after maintenance from about 23 December) took off from SYD at 2257 or so on the 2130 QF25, the 2130 hours SYD to HND.

While as one AFFer pointed out the key is what time until permission is granted for the precursor, nonetheless this was a fairly close call to missing the curfew.

QF497, however, was even closer to doing that, departing a short time after QF25. QF497 is the 2205 'last of the nights' down to MEL and tonight has VH-EBR. I remember well when the 'terrible twins' including AN used to regularly depart on the 'lasts' at 2220 as pushback time, a bit later than today's timetable.

EY455 (A380 A6_APA) and QF73 (B744 VH-OJS) were behind even these two, so tonight was perhaps some passengers' time to look out the window and 'thank their lucky stars' (although many will not believe in that concept.)

 

[Melburnian1]

The Friday 8 January QF520 (1105 hours 'elevenses' SYD to BNE) departed 45 minutes late and arrived exactly as unpunctually.

QF11 departed from SYD to LAX 72 minutes late at 1242 today but QF suggests arrival will only be 35 minutes behind schedule at 0700.

QF2260 from SYD to LHD has been significantly delayed from departing at 1150 to 1410. Lord Hoew Island arrival is estimated at 1600 in lieu of 1340 today. QF7944 on the same route has been delayed from 1310 to 1430, but that latter time was almost half an hour ago. QF has been having much trouble on the small route in the last couple of weeks. Perhaps it is the lowest priority when Qantaslink finds itself short of an aircraft.

 

[JessicaTam]

Saw somewhere else that it will come back via ship. Less urgency

I think it was in the 'Roo Tales" press release.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF419, the 0900 hours Saturday 9 January SYD - MEL has been cancelled while QF2536 from BNE to ROM is delayed from 0655 departing to an estimated 0730.

QF23 from SYD to BKK (A333 VH-QPG) has been delayed from 0955 to a predicted 1035 in departing.

QF130 from PVG is expected into SYD at 1205 today rather than 0945 hours.