Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[Quickstatus]

Agree with mia999. If QF kept the 2 B744 it is likely that they would be fully utilised.. However aren't there spare 744 on Tuesday and/or Wednesday In any case?, as this is a non peak utilisation period

On 02/03/17:
OEH is sitting in SYD after arriving from HND at 0930
OJT could have been utilised earlier in a swop with OEG but this would have required moving passengers luggage to a different aircraft. . Didn't they do this in DXB recently when they did a "standard ops" offloading an entire plane load of pax plus luggage to load another load of pax plus luggage going to the same port?
As an aside OJU has not operated from SYD since late Feb - in the maintenance hangar since 21/02/17

 

[Melburnian1]

On Thursday 2 March, the delayed QF29 from MEL to HKG arrived at 2212, allowing QF128 (B744 VH-OEG) to depart for SYD at 2353 hours, 243 minutes tardy. On Friday 3, this B744 should arrive at 1120, 205 minutes behind schedule. It looks to then be on QF73, the 1500 hours SYD - SFO rather than QF27 (1250 hours to SCL) as appeared to be the gate allocation last night.

Also on Friday 3, the 0630 and 0645 hours SYD - MEL, QF405 and QF403, were cancelled. QF504 and QF2012, the 0700 hours departures from SYD to respectively BNE and TMW also have not operated.

QF2104 from SYD to CFS has also got the boot, as has the later QF1568, the 1115 hours SYD - OOL. Sydney is wet with a lot more rain expected during the next couple of days.

QF1513, the 0815 SYD - CBR is significantly delayed with departure instead to be at 0935. The 0820 SYD - ARM (QF2020) is predicted to instead depart at 0855, meaning arrival at 1015 instead of 0940 hours.

 

[Melburnian1]

In addition to the overnight 18 hour delay to QF1 (which should instead depart in about an hour from SYD at 1130 on Friday 3 March) and a smaller three hour anticipated delay to Friday's QF10 ex LHR, the Friday 3 March 2045 hours evening LHR - DXB - SYD QF2 has now been delayed until an expected 0830 hours ex LHR on Saturday 4 March. This means a forecast 1740 hours Sunday 5 March SYD arrival instead of 0630 hours.

That may answer my earlier question above about whether QF2 would be allowed to depart from LHR at say 0220 hours in the restricted time between 2300 and 0600 hours. Crew availability - have they had sufficient rest - might also come into play.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are from memory the days when the A388 and B744 schedules of QF typically have spare 'equipment' so delays may continue for passengers booked on QF A388s until then.

Notably thus far QF is not recovering from these delays by short terminating one of its LHR-bound flights at DXB, a previously employed strategy. QF1 and QF2 are typically better loaded than QF9 and QF10 so that may have something to do with it.

Once again, if passengers can inform us in which hotels they are accommodated due to these delays that would be great information.

One hates to think of how many passengers - it would have to be at least in the high 10s on each flight - who as a result of a 12 or 18 hour late flight miss connections (and some who choose to or must leave travel until the last moment will miss or be badly late for important funerals, weddings and business meetings, but hopefully not cruise ships as the latter should ideally see passengers building in a buffer.)

The unknown is whether on its unprofitable LHR routes some of the more 'valuable' passengers in F and J experience a couple of these long delays and eventually switch to SQ, CX or another more reliable airline (which has the added benefit of not having to transit through Middle Eastern airports.) It may depend on how wedded individuals are to QF points and SCs, and whether they view KrisFlyer or Asia Miles as worthy substiutes.

 

[Quickstatus]

Thinking laterally, QF A380 are not significantly different in specs and age compared with say EK and SQ so (technical) malfunctions , one would think would not be significantly different to the other operators. Is there a possibility that the (acceptable to pilots) MEL (minimum equipment list) on the QF aircraft is different to that of the other airlines resulting in more D&C

 

[Melburnian1]

The Thursday 2 March QF1 (1645 hours from SYD to DXB and LHR) has been further delayed to an expected 1200 'high noon' Friday 3 departure. This will make it more than 19 hours late leaving.

 

[Quickstatus]

A 12noon departure sounds a bit easier on delayed passengers (not having to get up at 4am for an 0830 delayed departure). At least they get to sleep in a bit.

Premium passengers on the other hand (WP/WP1/CL/J/F) and above would have been offered an earlier reroute on other EK or maybe other OW like BA, CX, AY or even MH? Less sleep in London but they probably get to sleep better in the airplane

A reroute does not necessarily gets the passenger to their destination any quicker and may throw up other issues along the way. There are a lot of reasons why a premium pax reroute may not be in the best interests of the premium passenger

 

[Melburnian1]

The Thursday 2 March QF1 ex SYD is further delayed to 1215 hours on Friday 3.

UPDATE: QF1 is further delayed to 1230. For the sake of passengers, let's hope that these incremental adjustments to the departure time are due to passengers with checked luggage not having turned up to board at the gate rather more significant and time consuming difficulties than further repairs being needed to the Airbus A380, or crewing problems.

Will Heathrow allow a late QF1 to land at say 0100 or 0200? See a previous post (from yesterday) about LHR's allowed annual number of night time flights.

 

[Awesom Andy]

Is there a possibility that the (acceptable to pilots) MEL (minimum equipment list) on the QF aircraft is different to that of the other airlines resulting in more D&C

The working culture at the airlines is also important as to whether pilots would be more comfortable to reject an aircraft or to operate one in less than ideal (but still legal) circumstances.

Will Heathrow allow a late QF1 to land at say 0100 or 0200? See a previous post (from yesterday) about LHR's allowed annual number of night time flights.

Even if QF1 is allowed to land at that time, how would pax get out of the airport? I'm not an expert in LHR but without scheduled flights, I would imagine transportation options would be extremely limited.

 

[Melburnian1]

Oh dear. A further revised SYD departure time for QF1 has been published - 1255 hours. This is more than 20 hours late. The continual changes cannot be good news, but what we miss is a passenger on board updating us as to the exact cause if known.

UPDATE: Hooray! It looks like A388 VH-OQB has just commenced pushback at roughly 1255 hours. It took off at 1308, which from observation is quick for an A380 considering when pushback started.

 

[Melburnian1]

Even if QF1 is allowed to land at that time, how would pax get out of the airport? I'm not an expert in LHR but without scheduled flights, I would imagine transportation options would be extremely limited.

Fortunately on Friday (and Saturday) nights (or more correctly Sat and Sunday mornings) there is an 0307 hours 'last train' Tube train from LHR Terminal 3. Trains recommence at 0317 so there is really no four or five hour gap with no trains on these weekend nights. There is a train every 10 minutes on these nights.

Apart from LHR being the terminus, these early morning underground trains may well be carrying many airport employees.

 

[Melburnian1]

In further on Friday 3 March, QF4 from HNL to SYD (A333 VH-QPA) is arriving at 1634, 31 minutes late.

B738 VH-XZM on QF439 (the 1400 hours SYD down to MEL that took off at a much delayed 1554) should arrive at around 1705, 90 minutes behind schedule.

QF27, the 1250 hours long flight from SYD across the Pacific to SCL did not commence pushback until 1431 this afternoon. Friday 3 March arrival is suggested as 80 minutes late at 1230. As the returning QF28 is due out of SCL at 1335, it should be a tad more than half an hour late off blocks if all goes well, but previous flights suggest it can sometimes pick up time on a gate-to-gate basis.

The delayed Friday 3 March QF10 ex LHR (due to it being formed by QF9 - A388 VH-OQC - rather than the 19 or 20 hour late QF1) is predicted to arrive MEL on Saturday night 4 March at 2340, so passengers on Saturday night's QF9 have more than a day's notice of a likely two hour departure delay.

Thursday 2 March's QF12 departed LAX at 2318 hours, 48 late; Saturday 4 March arrival is predicted for 0920 hours, 50 minutes late.

 

[Himeno]

Even if QF1 is allowed to land at that time, how would pax get out of the airport? I'm not an expert in LHR but without scheduled flights, I would imagine transportation options would be extremely limited.

Transport for London started "night tube" last August. All night operation on a limited lines on Friday and Saturday nights. Expected to expand to other days and lines at some point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-5oNLoSOeI

 

[Melburnian1]

Also on Friday 3 March, QF464 (1930 hours MEL - SYD) departed at 2010 (B738 VH-XZK) with arrival suggested 44 minutes late at 2139 hours.

QF846 (B738 VH-VZB, the 2010 hours SYD to DRW that was airborne at 2121) should arrive at about 0040 on Saturday 4, 90 minutes late.

The Friday 3 March QF462 (VH-XZG, the 1900 hours MEL - SYD that was in the sky at 2027) is arriving at around 2147, 77 late.

Not far behind is QF466, the 1945 hours northbound (VH-VZE) that should arrive in SYD at 2150 tonight, 40 minutes behind schedule.

QF774 from ADL to SYD took off at 1942, 47 minutes after its timetabled departure, so arrival of VH-VYL is not predicted until 2159, 39 minutes late.

We then have QF490 from the southern state capital (MEL not HBA) that with VH-VXN should pull in to its alloted SYD gate at around the 2205 hours mark, 40 minutes late.

 

[Melburnian1]

Also on Friday 3 March, QF80 departed NRT at 1942, 42 late with Saturday 4 arrival suggested as half an hour behind at 0800.

 

[JohnK]

A few cancellations and many delays with the terrible weather in SYD. I drew the short straw again but worked out OK. My original flight cancelled and was put on earlier flight that arrived only 30 minutes after my original flight would have arrived so some people had much longer delays. Hope everyone made it out of BNE. Didn't check if QF557 departed this time around.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Friday 3 March, QF9 from MEL arrived LHR at 1229 and formed a delayed QF10, departing at 1451 instead of the scheduled 1155 hours. The DXB stop is estimated as 0130 to 0320 hours on Saturday 4 with MEL arrival very late tonight at 2340, 135 minutes late.

The Saturday 4 2325 hours QF9 is still showing on time ex MEL, which is impossible if it is the same A388, but strangely the QF website discloses that it should be half an hour late ex DXB for LHR.

Meanwhile the c. 19 hour late QF1 (the Thursday 2 March scheduled departure) that left SYD at 1252 on Friday made its intermediate stop in DXB from 1946 to 2123 on Friday 3 with Saturday 4 arrival predicted as 0110 hours on Saturday 4, 18 hours and 20 minutes late. The overnight delayed QF2 is still predicted to depart at 0830 on Saturday 4 from LHR, 11 hours and 45 minutes late.

Unfortunately these mammoth delays show up on the FlightStats combined punctuality and reliability calculations and tend to give such flights a rating of or extremely close to 0 out of 5. FlightStats has the deficiency of only typically showing a maximum of 61 or 62 previous flights: it would be preferable if the records used for the calculation stretched back a full year.

On Saturday 4, QF16 is a predicted 85 minutes late into BNE at 0830 while QF12 to SYD (both are flights ex LAX) should pull in 40 down at 0910 hours.

 

[Quickstatus]

Such significant delays on a flagship aircraft to a flagship destination. But social media is exceptionally quiet about this - both Bookface and Twitface

One tweet re QF2

https://twitter.com/qantas/status/837453587588378624

 

[Melburnian1]

Such significant delays on a flagship aircraft to a flagship destination. But social media is exceptionally quiet about this - both Bookface and Twitface

Given that with the LHR delay QF (in LHR) had many hours' notice, that may help in the huge task of finding hotel rooms - presumably not always easy in what is an extremely popular city for travellers and tourists. At least if passengers are fairly seamlessly given a hotel room and transport, while not pleased at the flight delay they can be comfortable in an hotel room.

In Quickstatus' above reproduced tweet, the passenger has used 'April 3 (and 4') as the dates: he means 3 and 4 March.

 

[Melburnian1]

Continuing with Saturday 4 March, QF97 from BNE to HKG is delayed from its usual 1030 hours departure to 1300, so arrival becomes an expected 1940 instead of 1730.

B744 VH-OJT on QF127 (1115 hours SYD - HKG) had yet to become airborne as at 1230, so it should be late into the Special Administrative Region. The timetabled arrival is 1725 so that may become 1815 or so.

QF11 departed from SYD at 1152 but did not take off until 1230. A388 VH-OQE should arrive same day about 38 minutes late at 0653 hours.

The 1225 SYD - MNL QF19 (A332 VH-EBS) took off at 1322 so is expected to arrive 40 minutes late at 1815 tonight.

 

[Melburnian1]

Due to the late arrival of QF10 tonight (Saturday 4 March), QF9 is expected to depart at 0200 on Sunday 5 March, 155 minutes late.

I've always wanted to eat a full meal at 0330 so good luck to those on board. The DXB stop is predicted to be truncated to 0845 to 1015, saving half an hour with eventual arrival in LHR at 1355 hours, 75 minutes tardy.