Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[ozbeachbabe]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

I've been at Ayers Rock last week for a conference. All attendees were due to fly out on Saturday morning, until QF delayed our Ayers Rock - Alice Springs flight by 4 hours, meaning we would all miss our connections home. Solution was to put us all up in Alice Springs over night and then take afternoon connections on Sunday.

Yikes that would've been a challenge for the new ground handling agent.

Was the pm flight AYQ/CNS full? Might've got in too late anyway to connect with SYD & MEL flights.

Don't know if it's Aerocare or Oceana who took over after QF mainline pulled out along with all the AYQ based staff.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Presumably due to bad weather, JQ625 tonight departed SYD 67 minutes late at 1947 for AVV, where it is due at an amended 2115 (according to the QF website) - an hour late - or 2120 (according to Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker!).

Its return is shown on the QF site as now to depart AVV at 2145 with an amended arrival time of 2305, five minutes after the curfew.

Of course, the JQ flights may make up a bit more time, either on the ground at AVV or in the air, so in the end the flight may sneak into SYD prior to the hour of 2300.

In such circumstances, I thought that SYD curfew dispensations would not normally be granted hours in advance because the return AVV- SYD flight has yet to depart, so no one yet knows what time it will exactly 'make' SYD.

I'm assuming that the QF website flight status arrivals may simply calculate the likely turnaround, taxiing and flight times as a guide, or does QF know something before 2030 hours, two and a half hours prior to 2300, that most of the rest of us (save for TonyHancock, who has DYKWIA supernatural powers) may not about how the flight has already been given a dispensation by the new Infrastructure Minister's delegate 'if the flight requires it?'

At this hour, QF cannot put JQ passengers on a bus to board the 2100 hours last QF flight of the evening from MEL to SYD, as it is too late for that.

As an aside, JQ629 that was meant to depart SYD at 1740 for AVV was 127 minutes late departing SYD, so it and JQ625 are not that far apart.

It will be interesting to see if the new Federal Government is a bit more generous in granting such requests for dispensations. These currently require three criteria to be satisfied.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Sources tell me that there was a catering delay: they were waiting for butter.

Lurpak????

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

If www.flightradar24 is correct, JQ625 may have had a missed approach at AVV or been diverted at the last moment to MEL as it is now approaching MEL. The QF website indicates that it has been diverted with a 2145 arrival at MEL.

This begs the question: does QF provide a bus from MEL to AVV for passengers to get in their cars or be met by relatives?

What about passengers on JQ626, as that flight is still shown (possibly incorrectly) as departing AVV at 2145 for SYD?

JQ629 also appears to be diverted from AVV to MEL tonight, which presumably means that JQ602 on Tuesday morning from AVV to SYD will be altered to depart from MEL as there will now not be a JQ aircraft overnighting at AVV.

 

[suparockin]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

lurpak????

roflol...........!

 

[JohnK]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Desktops are to the right of the counter after you walk in the door.

Not anymore.

Apparently the desktops have been sacrificed while they are renovating!

 

[RickyT84]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

If www.flightradar24 is correct, JQ625 may have had a missed approach at AVV or been diverted at the last moment to MEL as it is now approaching MEL. The QF website indicates that it has been diverted with a 2145 arrival at MEL.

This begs the question: does QF provide a bus from MEL to AVV for passengers to get in their cars or be met by relatives?

What about passengers on JQ626, as that flight is still shown (possibly incorrectly) as departing AVV at 2145 for SYD?

JQ629 also appears to be diverted from AVV to MEL tonight, which presumably means that JQ602 on Tuesday morning from AVV to SYD will be altered to depart from MEL as there will now not be a JQ aircraft overnighting at AVV.

This is based from my only experience from AVV...

Our inbound flight from SYD was diverted to MEL due to heavy fog at AVV and all passengers were given the option of taking a coach provided by JQ to MEL (as there was another flight to BNE from AVV which was diverted to MEL but that flight was changed to operate MEL-BNE with all pax being bussed from AVV) or sort out our own arrangements for the evening.

We departed MEL early next morning with the same crew and plane (new flight no. JQ 7626) that was supposed to operate our flight from AVV as they had overnighted in MEL.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

As a result of last night's diversions, JQ7981 took off from MEL at 0616 this morning for the very short hop to AVV and is apparently forming a delayed JQ602 at 0705 (55 minutes late) to SYD. Presumably JQ decided that by the time the last passengers checked in at AVV at 0515 (45 minutes prior), it would take too long to get them by bus to MEL and check the passengers in there.

Such altered arrangements must cost JQ a fair bit.

 

[medhead]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

.

It will be interesting to see if the new Federal Government is a bit more generous in granting such requests for dispensations. These currently require three criteria to be satisfied.

Umm, there isn't a new government yet. Also this thread is about qantas not jetstar. Jetstar is a completely separate airline.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Thank you medhead. I may ask the moderators to change the title to 'QF/JQ Group discussion...' as they are part of the one corporate entity. There are many codeshared flights between QF and JQ.

Umm, there was a Federal election on 7 September that led to a decisive result (in the lower House: Senate remains unclear). The new Government has yet to be sworn in but the previous Government has conceded defeat. From memory the (former) Prime Minister concerned did that at about 2145 on 7 September.

 

[nlagalle]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Thank you medhead. I may ask the moderators to change the title to 'QF/JQ Group discussion...' as they are part of the one corporate entity. There are many codeshared flights between QF and JQ.

Umm, there was a Federal election on 7 September that led to a decisive result (in the lower House: Senate remains unclear). The new Government has yet to be sworn in but the previous Government has conceded defeat. From memory the (former) Prime Minister concerned did that at about 2145 on 7 September.

Yawn....

Medhead is referring to the fact that we don't officially have a new government yet, it hasn't been sworn in.

 

[geordieladinoz]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

How is QF9 going? Looks ok to me on flight aware the last few days, even a 5am arrival into LHR!

 

[nlagalle]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

How is QF9 going? Looks ok to me on flight aware the last few days, even a 5am arrival into LHR!

More to the point my QF481 MEL-PER was almost 30 minutes early! I mean heck I just managed to finish the movie I was watching on the IFE.. How can one plan to watch movies if the flights start arriving early???

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Sorry to hear of your inability to finish watching the movie.

Perhaps you should travel on QF777, the 1445 from MEL, some four hours ahead of QF481 to PER.

63 per cent of the time, it is 15 minutes or more late according to FlightStats - Global Flight Tracker, Status Tracking and Airport Information You could finish the movie and have time for some quick airline coffee!

QF is however not alone in building in excess time to its timetables. This reduces the daily productivity of each aircraft, but from the airlines' viewpoint they are very conservative with their schedules as they want to minimise knock-on delays in the event of bad weather (as one example) adversely affecting departure times and hence eating up the excess time allowed in many of the schedules.

SYD - MEL is a case in point. The flying time is roughly an hour: if a flight departs from the gate on time, has a quick taxi and takeoff and does not have to enter a holding pattern, not have any ATC-imposed 'speed restrictions' nor undertake a go-around approaching MEL, and then is able to arrive quickly at the MEL gate, it will arrive at least 15 minutes early.

 

[serfty]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Having travelled on hundreds of flights between SYD & MEL, it seemed the planned flight times generally varied between 50 & 65 minutes, under that was fast (I remember a could of 45 minute announcements) and over that was 'slow' (remembering a 1:20 plan).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

back in the 1980s MEL-PER was blocked at 3.15, MEL-SYD at 1.10?

granted there were only 2 non-stops a day MEL-PER IIRC (others being via ADL). the morning flight offered breakfast followed by a Chinese dim sum selection about an hour before landing. all together entirely civilised back then.

 

[nlagalle]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Sorry to hear of your inability to finish watching the movie.

Perhaps you should travel on QF777, the 1445 from MEL, some four hours ahead of QF481 to PER.

63 per cent of the time, it is 15 minutes or more late according to FlightStats - Global Flight Tracker, Status Tracking and Airport Information You could finish the movie and have time for some quick airline coffee!

QF is however not alone in building in excess time to its timetables. This reduces the daily productivity of each aircraft, but from the airlines' viewpoint they are very conservative with their schedules as they want to minimise knock-on delays in the event of bad weather (as one example) adversely affecting departure times and hence eating up the excess time allowed in many of the schedules.

SYD - MEL is a case in point. The flying time is roughly an hour: if a flight departs from the gate on time, has a quick taxi and takeoff and does not have to enter a holding pattern, not have any ATC-imposed 'speed restrictions' nor undertake a go-around approaching MEL, and then is able to arrive quickly at the MEL gate, it will arrive at least 15 minutes early.

I think the sarcasm of my post went over your head...

As sefty pointed out the MEL-SYD flight can easily vary the flight time by 15 mins due to weather (this doesn't include taxi time either). Having done over 200 flights between MEL and SYD I've seen these variations as well as the infamous taxi to the third runway. This is also why the airlines have extra time padded into the timetable. They don't know what runways they will operate from...

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

nlagalle, my experience also in flying that route many times also shows a variation in gate to gate times.

That said, on most days the schedules are still slack.

In the 1980s, SYD - MEL was 75 minutes on the infamous duopoly's birds. Today, it is 95.

MEL - SYD was 70; it is now 85 minutes.

SYD (and other) airports are more congested than the 1980s but this does not account for all of the laziness in timetable scheduling.

If QF, VA, JQ and TT want their planes to be less productive on a daily basis than could arguably be the case, that's a business decision for each. However, it does not help travellers who note that on many days a flight takes less time than allowed for in the timetable, so the 1400 to MEL could really leave at 1415 and still be in the southern capital quite easily at 1535, allowing travellers the option of arriving at SYD airport 15 minutes later than required for a 1400 hours departure.

It's surprising that with usage of Australia's major airports varying throughout the day - for instance, things are relatively quiet at SYD or MEL at say 1300 of an afternoon, but they are busier in MEL around 1500 or 1830 - that airlines do not speed up the timetabled number of minutes offpeak flights are shown as taking. I accept that airlines do not know weather conditions and hence which runways will be operating in advance, but surely with years of history of particular flights being known, the offpeak flights on routes such as SYD - MEL could be retimetabled to be 10 minutes faster (i.e. 85 minutes gate to gate) - which would still be 10 minutes slower than in the 1980s.

 

[markis10]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

There is a twenty minute average time difference between departing 16R and 34L, airlines need to take that into account at Sydney, that is because one is very close to the terminal with multiple intersection departure facilities while the other is 4KM away, requires crossing one or two active runways and has limited intersection departures, meaning longer queues for takeoff.

Of topic but a narrow body aircraft lined up on 34L cannot see crossing traffic on the threshold of 16R, the runway is a hill that peaks in the middle.

 

[jb747]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Let's start with a simple fact. In the '80s and into the '90s, they were lying to you about the flight time.

Yes, there was pretty much zero holding, and yes, it wasn't as congested as it is now, nor did you have to taxi for miles to reach the end of 34R.

But, at the end of the day, the flight times printed by both airlines were figments of the imagination. If one had said they could do it in three minutes, then the other would have scheduled 2....