Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[Melburnian1]

QF web showing 0045 departure, expecte 1015 arrival

docjames, many thanks. A388 VH-OQJ will be landing at 1017 on Thursday 18 February as QF12 ex LAX and hence at the gate at about 1030, so it is even a little later than you suggested.

QF848, the midday MEL to CBR has been cancelled.

QF117, the 1315 hours SYD to HKG second flight today (A333 VH-QPE) did not take off until 1418 this afternoon but should only be half an hour late arriving at about 2010 this evening.

One of our old friends the B717s (VH-YQU - the rhetorical question!) is late tonight, with QF1506 from HBA to MEL about to pull in at 1910 hours, some 35 minutes behind time.

 

[Melburnian1]

For the second consecutive night - this time it is the Wednesday 17 February timetabled 2230 hours departure - QF12 has been delayed ex LAX with the revised 150 minute late departure time now 0100 on Thursday 18, meaning a likely SYD arrival on Friday 19 February of 1040 hours.

QF16 to BNE is departing LAX at a forecast 0000 (midnight) but should only be 25 minutes late in arriving BNE on Friday morning (at 0740) if that transpires.

 

[Quickstatus]

in your estimation Melburnian1, which has the better on-time departures after on-time arrival of same aircraft. B747 or A380?

 

[Melburnian1]

Quickstatus,they are not comparable because with very limited exceptions, the B747s and the A388s operate on different routes.

And where they may operate on the same route, such as SYD to HKG, it is usually on different days.

My perception is that the A380s always seem to take much longer to taxi and take off - that may be illogical!

Every flight differs, because on no two will what occurs be absolutely identical, whether it be in how long the turnaround time is, what percentage of passengers if any fail to show and hence require luggage to be unloaded at the last minute, how non-existent or prevalent airfield and airspace congestion is on a particular day and climatic conditions.

However some esteemed AFf contributors have implied that there is more, all other conditions being equal, that can 'go wrong' on an A388 than a B747 - but I'll leave that to the aviators to decide. As a passenger, give me a B747 any day: the Queen of the Skies, but that's more an emotional attachment than a view about relative punctuality.

It may well be better to refer to a few posts back where I gave a back of the envelope assessment of what I perceived as the relative punctuality performance of QF (not JQ) long and medium haul routes, which vary from the Oz to Japan routes (excellent - hardly ever late despite a couple of recent 'outlier' 24 hour delays) to the appalling performance of QF9 and QF10 between MEL - DXB - LHR and return despite their slower northern winter timetables. Others are welcome to contest my perceptions on the route-by-route basis, but no one has to date.

The delayed QF12 ended up departing LAX at 0111 on Thursday morning with Friday 19 February arrival now estimated in SYD at 1111.

 

[Melburnian1]

With an admirable amount of notice to passengers, QF suggests that Friday 19 February's QF2037, normally the 0645 DBO to SYD will instead depart at 0730 and arrive 45 minutes late at 0830. QF2164 from SYD to PQQ is to be delayed in departing from 0825 to 0850 hours.

It looks like this is due to QF2048 on Thursday 18 (tonight) departing SYD 76 minutes late at 2016 and arriving in the western NSW city at 2123 hours, 73 minutes late. If this crew is running the 'first' in the morning ex DBO, then they will effectively have less than 10 hours off, and presumably about eight hours or not much more to 'relax' in their motel or whatever.

Presumably there are many reasons why not (including cost), but if it was surface modes of transport in many cases there would be crew based at a place like Dubbo if there was a regular early morning departure that required the conveyance to overnight there.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF653, the 2035 hours Thursday 18 February MEL to PER (A332 VH-EBE) took off at 2139 and hence will arrive at about 2235, 55 minutes late.

 

[jb747]

Presumably there are many reasons why not (including cost), but if it was surface modes of transport in many cases there would be crew based at a place like Dubbo if there was a regular early morning departure that required the conveyance to overnight there.

I'm not too sure that you can really equate surface and air transport operations.

For a based crew, you can't plan their operations around one flight. You need to be able to build a day of 4-6 sectors, and fit that in with the various other bases. An efficiency at one place can easily lead to less at another.

Looking at the timings, and keeping in mind that their flying day won't have been just the one flight that you're looking at, I'd not be at all surprised if the crew operating the early flight actually arrived on a late afternoon flight. It's only assumption that the delay is crew rest related.

 

[Melburnian1]

Many thanks jb747. Certainly it is an assumption - it just appeared to be too much of a 'coincidence' that the evening flight was late tonight into DBO and hence the morning flight is delayed due to (my assumption of) crew rest requirements. Granted, there could be other causes.

Irrespective, QF deserves plaudits for not as sometimes occurs failing to update the website but in this case giving passengers (and their 'lifts' to the airport) plenty of notice that they may not have to rise quite so early tomorrow morning. This is especially welcome in the bush where some passengers may drive from (in this case) towns or farms out at say Coonamble or Nyngan to board the flight.

 

[Conrad_S]

Yes congrats to qantas on the early notice. QF2165 is also seems to be slightly delayed going back to Sydney as a consequence of this I presume.In the last few weeks we've had a few crew rest related delays on the Sydney to Port Macquarie link (afternoons). They've actually put us on the bus to go to the plane before realising the rest was needed. I'm sure it must be very amusing for gate staff to hear passengers vocalising about "am I traveling on jetstar/tiger etc".Anyway I don't recall these very late notifications of delays ever happening for this reason before.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Friday 19 February, QF23 from SYD to BKK is expected to depart at 1025 rather than 0955 hours.

For a second consecutive day, QF610, the 0905 hours MEL - BNE has been cancelled. QF601, the first flight from BNE southwards to MEL at a normal 0500 departure at this time of year also did not operate.

QF1500, the first flight from HBA to MEL arrived about 40 minutes late so the 0745 hours QF1501 back to HBA has naturally been delayed. This makes it hard, at least for a while to have these flights run on time as they have fairly tight turnarounds.

QF1543, the 0510 earlybird from BNE to CBR took off at 0557 AEST and is about to arrive at roughly 0835, 35 minutes late. Aircraft is B717 VH-NXK.

 

[eminere]

Is there a (free) web site somewhere that can tell you the historical on-time performance of QF1?

 

[Melburnian1]

FlightStats - Global Flight Tracker, Status Tracking and Airport Information is one option: it tends to go back about 60 days when one has a quick look at it.

It uses a couple of indicators to assess overall performance. There is a helpful bar graph. From observation, QF1 is better than the ex MEL QF9, but QF has slowed the timetables for these LHR flights so your quickest option to LHR is SQ, which as I understand it involves a change in aircraft in SIN.

Redeye QF24 ex BKK (A333 VH-QPJ) is about 95 minutes late this morning and about to arrive in SYD at 0915.

 

[eminere]

FlightStats - Global Flight Tracker, Status Tracking and Airport Information is one option: it tends to go back about 60 days when one has a quick look at it.

It uses a couple of indicators to assess overall performance. There is a helpful bar graph. From observation, QF1 is better than the ex MEL QF9, but QF has slowed the timetables for these LHR flights so your quickest option to LHR is SQ, which as I understand it involves a change in aircraft in SIN.

Thanks very much for the link. I'm connecting at DXB to an EK flight to CDG. Hopefully there'll be no major delays on my flight; the site gives a rating of 'Very Poor' for the QF1 SYD-DXB sector.

 

[Melburnian1]

eminere, you have reason for a bit of optimism, because for the last 63 monitored days, that flight has arrived in DXB less than 15 minutes late 65 per cent of the time.

Remember that FlightStats - Global Flight Tracker, Status Tracking and Airport Information also uses as part of its overall calculation a comparator. Since EK is the only other SYD - DXB operator with nonstop flights, it stands to reason that if EK is more punctual than QF, the QF 'relative' punctuality rating will suffer, which is a different kettle of fish from its actual unpunctuality.

QF23, the 0955 SYD to BKK on Friday 19 February departed at 1050. It should arrive at 1615 hours, 40 minutes late.

QF741, the 1035 SYD to ADL departed 42 minutes late, arriving 37 minutes behind time at 1247. While longhaul QF63 departed 37 minutes behind time at 1212, it is forecast to be only 25 minutes late arriving ex SYD in JNB at 1700 hours.

A far more major delay is that QF27, a B744-operated extremely long flight from SYD to SCL has been delayed departing from the timetabled 1250 on Friday 19 February to 0900 tomorrow morning, Saturday 20 February. This means an 0700 Saturday arrival in South America rather than 1120 today (Friday.)

QF has yet to update the revised timings for QF28 (SCL - SYD 19 February) on its website which is poor, but expect it to be delayed until at least 0830 on Saturday morning in its departure which means an 'after noon' Sunday 21 February arrival back in Sydney.

Another B744 flight, QF73 from SYD to SFO has been delayed departing from 1500 this afternoon by four hours to 1900 this evening, the suggestion being that it will arrive at 1300 same day instead of 0930 hours.

While none of us can suggest that every B744-related delay would have been obviated by the retention of those two now retired or scrapped B747s, as unplanned delays occur with most forms of transport, the words of AFF member JohnPhelan warning that the removal from the fleet of these two aircraft would mean at times 'rolling 24 hour delays' have the ring of truth more and more every time there are severe delays.

Advice from AFFers booked on these QF27, QF28 or QF73 flights as to the cause of delay(s) and what arrangements and/or compensation QF has provided or will provide would be most welcome.

 

[Melburnian1]

The forecast delay to QF73 ex SYD on Friday 19 February has now ballooned out to a 2030 hours departure.

One hopes that this is accurate, as otherwise the curfew at 2300 hours looms. On the spot reports from patrons of the flight would be great.

UPDATE: QF73 departed at 2019.

The MEL - HBA - MEL flights referred to a small number of posts above ran late all day today. The final flight for the day, QF1507 arrived HBA 59 minutes late at 2139 hours.

Other than QF's contractor Cobham having a spare aircraft on continual standby - an expensive solution and one not guaranteed to work - I don't know what the answer is. Passengers just have to grin and bare it if a particular B717 starts to run late on this route because at least on weekdays observations suggest that neither the allowed running time or the layovers have sufficient margins to allow a gradual 'recovery' back to matching the timetable as a day progresses.

 

[eminere]

eminere, you have reason for a bit of optimism, because for the last 63 monitored days, that flight has arrived in DXB less than 15 minutes late 65 per cent of the time.

Remember that FlightStats - Global Flight Tracker, Status Tracking and Airport Information also uses as part of its overall calculation a comparator. Since EK is the only other SYD - DXB operator with nonstop flights, it stands to reason that if EK is more punctual than QF, the QF 'relative' punctuality rating will suffer, which is a different kettle of fish from its actual unpunctuality.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Melburnian1]

On Saturday 20 February, QF1513 (0815 hours SYD to CBR) has been cancelled, as has QF1471, the 0955 hours departure. The weather bureau has not suggested that Canberra is foggy.

QF2536, the 0655 hours BNE to RMA has been altered to operate to Miles (WLE is its code), which although I have been to by rail and road I was not aware even had an airport capable of handling RPT flights (apologies to all AFF banana benders who already know it is so equipped.) Roma did not have any of the heavy rainfall that hit Ipswich and around Brisbane last night, so the reason for the diversion is unclear. The QF website treats it as a 'cancellation' to RMA and a scheduled BNE - MLE flight, which may be semantics to affected passengers but a 'diversion' refers to an unplanned event that typically occurs after an aircraft is airborne, so there is a difference.

 

[Quickstatus]

Could a flight be cancelled or rerouted due to weather at that flights diversion airports even original destination airport has good weather?

 

[Melburnian1]

With the overnight delayed QF27 hopefully to depart SYD at 0900 on Satuday 20 February, QF is now suggesting that the delayed Friday 19 QF28 from SCL will depart at 0905 today Chilean time (Saturday) with SYD Sunday 21 February arrival at 1315 hours.

The 1825 hours QF17 tonight (Saturday) from SYD to LAX has been cancelled, as has the 2335 hours Saturday QF18 that should normally arrive in SYD at 0915 hours on Monday. This is presumably due to the badly delayed QF27 and QF28.

With AA now operating between LAX and SYD, QF has a wider choice of alternative flights on which to place passengers but it must still create much inconvenience to cancel a B744 flight, even if at this time of year it might only be 75 per cent full given that it is not Easter or school holidays.

UPDATE: QF put back the much delayed Friday QF27 (B744 VH-OEB) to an 0930 Saturday 20 February departure, but it eventually departed at 0945 and took off at 1003 as QF27D. It is forecast to arrive at 0720 on Saturday in SCL.

QF129, the 1050 hours SYD to PVG has been delayed in departing from 1050 to an expected 1130.

 

[AccountSignup]

QF17 delay hit me :|. Flying out Sunday morning on QF11. Lost a points upgrade from Y to J in the process too :|.