Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[Melburnian1]

Melburnian1 always encourages contributors to report from the coal face as you have done.
I think that makes you one of Melburnian1's "esteemed" contributors!.

Indeed he does encourage on-the-spot reporting. Nothing beats it with AFFers receiving many valuable tips from such experiences of their colleagues.

AFF member QF029 deserves platinum status for that; the industry veterans who contribute are of course above even that exalted status.

Back to flight delays: the B744-operated Wednesday 20 April QF96 from LAX to MEL departed two hours and three minutes late at 0138 on Thursday 21. Friday 22 April arrival is estimated at 0935 hours rather than the timetabled 0800.

Earlier, the Wednesday 20 April B744-operated 'tag' flight using the QF12 flight number departed JFK at 2135 hours rather than 1810 hours, arriving LAX at 0007 hours (just after midnight) on Thursday 21 April compared with the timetabled arrival of Wednesday at 2105 hours. Connecting flights to Oz east coast were therefore delayed.

Quite amazingly QF16 departed LAX on Thursday at exactly the same time - 0249 hours (three hours and 29 minutes late) as it did on Wednesday 20 April, with Friday morning BNE arrival suggested as 0820 hours, two hours and 10 minutes late but on the good side 51 minutes faster than what the previous day's arrival managed.

The Wednesday 20 April LAX - SYD QF12 departed two and a half hours late at 0100 on Thursday 21 April; SYD arrival should be on Friday 22 at 0845, two and a quarter hours late.

The evening of Thursday 21 April is seeing some late running between SYD and MEL. QF493, the 1915 hours SYD to MEL has been delayed in its departure until 2050. QF467, the 1930 hours should instead depart 85 minutes late at 2055. QF489, the 2015 hours southbound should push back an hour late. QF491, the 2030 hours departure is forecast to push back 55 minutes late.

QF2048 from SYD to DBO departed 45 minutes behind schedule at 2045 this evening while QF2178, the 1900 hours departure from SYD north to PQQ was 50 minutes late in departing.

QF1536, the 1745 hours very late afternoon MEL to CBR departed at 1839, arriving 52 minutes late at 1942.

QF474, the 1815 hours MEL north to SYD was cancelled.

While QF2086, the 1855 hours QantasLink from MEL to MQL departed 23 minutes late, upon arrival the deficit increased to 34 minutes at 2039.

QF636, the 2010 hours MEL to BNE departed 38 minutes late. Predicted 'on blocks' is 2300 hours in the Sunshine State's capital, 40 minutes tardy.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Friday 22 April, QF1728, the first of the morning from BNE north to 'Rocky' (ROK) is cancelled while QF501, the 0600 BNE down to SYD should be half an hour late departing but hopefully only 15 minutes behind arriving at 0750.

QF2374, the 0815 BNE to HVB is forecast to depart 75 minutes late at 0930 hours.

QF2540 (0930 hours BNE to ROM) and QF2454 (0940 hours BNE to MOV) have both been cancelled. There are many cancellations to the latter mining town (badly affected by the slump in commodity prices) but one AFF member asserted that on the MOV route, QF deliberately did not cancel poorly booked flights until very close to the departure time or date to minimise the 'loss' of passengers to VA. If true, it would be a sure fire way to alienate miners and their families, plus other local residents.

The longhaul QF15 is again delayed today, this time by an hour to a revised 1100 departure. See previous posts for some other recent problems with this B744 flight and its opposite number QF16.

 

[whughes3]

QF20 MNL-SYD on Sunday 24/4 was delayed as a result of what strikes me as a snafu by the pilot. The incoming flight arrived early and boarding was completed on time; the pilot then announced that they were expecting a fast flight time, and to avoid arriving before the SYD curfew lifts departure would be delayed briefly. Unfortunately, it seems that MNL ATC couldn't care less about the SYD curfew and dumped QF20 to the "back of the queue" when it didn't depart on time; as a result we sat on the tarmac for nearly an hour after pushback; the flight time was indeed fast, but we were still ~45 mins late into SYD, enough to mess up quite a lot of connecting flights apparently (happily not mine!).

 

[Quickstatus]

QF8 ex DFW on 22 april diverted to NAN. (VH-OQC)

It appears to be a medical diversion causing a domino effect all the way back to JFK and onward to BNE.

SYD arrival was 0801
Departed as QF11 24/11 at 1211 some 1:50 late
Arrived LAX at 0813 some 2 hours late

Unfortunately QF93 VH-OQL also arrived late few minutes after QF11.

On 24/4 the LAX-JFK-LAX flight by the venerable 744 (VH-OEI) departed late but not of its own tardiness.
After a punctual operation as QF15 and then waiting for its bigger but late sisters QF11/93, it departed late as QF11 transcontinental at 1054hrs. It arrived back into LAX after its sojourn about 2.5 hours late at 2250
This caused the lounges to stay open a tad longer (do the staff get paid overtime, does OT exist in the US?) for the late departure of QF16 at 0130hrs

2 hours - some would call this a minor delay.

Flightaware times



As a side note Tuesdays QF11 is now a 744 so that the DFW service can be all 380 7 days a week. It must be doing well despite the longer flight and much higher prices than a SYD-LAX plus an AA LAX-DFW ticket.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Friday 29 April 2016, QF510 from SYD to BNE is delayed in its departure by an hour to an expected 0935. This was due to teh first of the morning from BNE to SYD, QF501 departing 70 minutes late at 0710 and arriving 61 minutes tardy at 0836. At least it wsas not cancelled which as with all modes of public transport can occur if a problem is discovered when (in airlines' case) a crew signs on and does the mandatory checks.

Lengthy duration B744-operated flight QF73 (1300 hours SYD - SFO) should instead depart at 1430 but QF expects it to better the schedule by 20 minutes with a probable 1040 hours arrival, 70 minutes behind time.

The 0940 hours QF2454 (BNE to recession hit mining town MOV) has been cancelled. For such a small route this sees more than its fair share, with a previous AFF correspondent alleging that QF's strategy is to cancel flights at the last minute so that up until then passengers book with it and deny competitor VA bookings.

 

[nonscenic]

On Fri 29 April 2016 QF1507 MEL-HBA (scheduled dep 1515) and QF1508 HBA-MEL (scheduled dep 1710) were cancelled and a JQ A320 was sent down (JQ7303) to return scheduled departure 1945 as JQ7304. The JQ flight was delayed by ATC and subsequently the return flight left at 2000.
There were a few pax in the QP with onward flight connections that were missed. They were not offered a seat on an earlier scheduled JQ flight at 1730 as "it was taking time to get the passenger names copied over to JQ"

 

[Melburnian1]

QF2012 (0655 hours SYD - TWM) on Tuesday 3 May has been cancelled.

 

[FlyboyAl]

Sitting in the lounge at LAX and QF12 and QF16 have just come up with a 1 hour later departure for each.
QF94 is still OK.

 

[Quickstatus]

Sitting in the lounge at LAX and QF12 and QF16 have just come up with a 1 hour later departure for each.
QF94 is still OK.

Hi FlyboyAl

great pics in the planespotters thread.

It appears that the transcontinental QF12 departed JFK at 2014 hrs, 1 hour or so late. As this becomes the B744 QF16 and several passengers from the 12 will be connecting the 16 and 12 and possibly 94 will be late.

The cause for the delayed transcontinental QF12 appeared to be( the often) delayed QF93 ex MEL arriving into LAX perhaps 1.5 hours late. QF11 744 to JFK then had to wait for JFK bound pax on the QF93 and then arriving into JFK at 1800hrs about 1.5 hours late

Any additional coalface intel will be appreciated FlyBoyAl

 

[FlyboyAl]

Hi FlyboyAl

great pics in the planespotters thread.

It appears that the transcontinental QF12 departed JFK at 2014 hrs, 1 hour or so late. As this becomes the B744 QF16 and several passengers from the 12 will be connecting the 16 and 12 and possibly 94 will be late.

The cause for the delayed transcontinental QF12 appeared to be a delayed departure of the transcont QF11 this morning arriving into JFK at 1800 hrs.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If I'm going to be delayed, I'd like it for about 12 hours so I can finish some things off. 1 Hour doesn't do it for me at present lol.

 

[Quickstatus]

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If I'm going to be delayed, I'd like it for about 12 hours so I can finish some things off. 1 Hour doesn't do it for me at present lol.

Unfortunately no

The venerable old girl B744 VH-OJS (the one damaged by the catering truck in Jan 2015, and which carried the 5th engine to JNB recently) is currently flying over Missouri, so should get there at the rescheduled time.

 

[FlyboyAl]

No mention of any issues with qf94 yet. Lounge staff said there would be no delay. Maybe no one wants to go to Melbourne!

 

[Quickstatus]

No mention of any issues with qf94 yet. Lounge staff said there would be no delay. Maybe no one wants to go to Melbourne!

Possibilities are
1) as you say no one on the 12 are connecting to the 94
2) if there are connecting passengers they might be told that they have to connect via SYD on the 12

The airline may want to protect the onward QF93 after the arrival of the 94 from any possible delay as there is only about 3 hours or so to change the 93 to 94 (if this is the projected forward arrangement on 4/3/16)

 

[FlyboyAl]

About to push back. All looks good.

 

[Quickstatus]

About to push back. All looks good.

Any intel on passenger loading on the 94 please?

You might see QF12 from JFK landing as you taxi!

 

[Melburnian1]

On Wednesday 4 May 2016, QF12 (A388 VH-OQC) should arrive SYD at about 0720 hours, 50 minutes late on its flight ex LAX.

QF2104 (0700 SYD - CFS) is expected to depart an hour late at 0800 hours.

QF429, the 1130 late morning SYD down to MEL has been cancelled, as was QF1510, the 0630 hours CBR - SYD. QF438 (1400 hours MEL north to SYD) has also been cancelled.

 

[FlyboyAl]

Any intel on passenger loading on the 94 please?

You might see QF12 from JFK landing as you taxi!

Soory, its a bit late now, but we loaded and took off pretty much on time - didn't see any other QF aircraft.

 

[Melburnian1]

Thursday 5 May 2016 sees QF1704, the 0900 BNE to GLT, cancelled. QF1579 (0740 hours MCY down to SYD) is not expected to depart until 0850 meaning arrival at 1025 not the scheduled 0915.

QF20 should arrive in SYD 35 minutes late at 0645 ex MNL.

 

[Melburnian1]

Thank you to everyone for viewing this QF delays/ cancellations thread in total more than 150,000 times.

The next best read thread is Jetstar, at about 24,000 page views then Virgin Australia with 14,000. The relatively low interest in VA posts is surprising because it and TT have about a 35 per cent share of the Australian domestic air patronage, although a negligible presence internationally. Many AFF site visitors may be particularly interested in the punctuality of international flights given time constraints travellers face with overseas business trips and holidays, so that may explain part of the relatively low page views for VA.

It is not possible for any one of us to 'capture' all delays over half an hour, but the 'offering' in these threads gives a hint as to what to expect. History is an imperfect guide as every day sees a new leaf turned over, but it can be handy to know on what routes an airline manages to perform almost faultlessly every day and those city pairs where performance is sub par.

Some featured events shine a light into the Australian economy: QF's regular cancellation of BNE - GLT or MOV flights is one as these localities have been hard hit by the mining and resources downturn. In contrast, the WA mining routes seem to have very good punctuality, but I do not always manage to monitor these to observe if some flights are cancelled and publicly show as such.

High cancellation rates on some routes can be a feature of operations. For instance on the busy SYD - MEL - SYD route, cancellations from some airlines have been close to five per cent of monthly scheduled flights, and these are only cancellations made within seven days of the original flight operating date, so if one had access to data a couple of weeks prior to a particular date, there may be more.

Other discussions such as the at times appalling punctuality of the QF B717 flights between MEL and HBA are examples where QF has a subcontractor providing flights yet there is often no easy access to a spare aircraft should the rostered plane encounter problems. It may not be financially realistic to expect a 'subbie' to have a spare aircraft sitting on a tarmac 'just in case', but that does little to console delayed passengers with urgent appointments.

Further discussions demonstrate how the punctuality of QFi varies from top class - excellent - with QF25 and QF26 between SYD and HND, and generally extremely good timekeeping ex BNE to the various Asian ports such as HKG, NRT and SIN, through a highly variable timekeeping performance on routes like SYD - MNL, SYD or MEL - LAX and MEL - HKG or SIN to the sometimes extremely poor timekeeping of QF9 and QF10 between MEL - DXB - LHR and return.

Not every delay is the airline's fault, so many of us try to show the cause of each delay if known. Sometimes there are nasty 'rolling 24 hour' delays, particularly if an A388 or B744 aircraft must suddenly be withdrawn for repairs.

The best reports come from those at the coalface, some of whom have been kind enough to update us from airport lounges as to 'progress.'

So thank you again, one and all.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Thursday 5 May, QF1463 (0730 ex SYD for the short hop down to CBR) has been delayed to an expected pushback of 0805 hours.

Further north, QF2560, the 0630 BNE to RM has just departed at 0810, 100 minutes late. Arrival should be 80 minutes tardy at 0915. QF2374 (0810 hours BNE - HVB) should instead depart at 0900.