M1 can you please give a summary of the delays?
The almost 12 hour delayed Friday 3 March 2017 QF2 (A388 VH-OQB) departed, as QF had predicted, bang on 0830 hours from LHR. The intermediate stop is expected at DXB from 1920 to 2100 hours tonight and then onwards to SYD, arriving late afternoon at 1740 hours on Sunday 5 as previously suggested.
The 'summary' of delays is above in various preceding posts, but at present tonight we have this QF2 12 hours late, the Saturday night arriving QF10 in MEL expected two hours late and the Saturday night departure of QF9 naturally delayed a similar two hours (actually more) to 0200 on Sunday 5.
Online site FlightStats gives a 1.9 out of 5 for QF1 between SYD and DXB - this is a combined reliability and punctuality ranking - with an 'average delay' of 49 minutes for the last 63 flights. 23 per cent of these flights have been 'excessively late', 'very late' or 'late.' One was diverted.
Between DXB and LHR, QF1 receives a 2.5 out of 5 rating with an average delay of 90 minutes but only 9 per cent of flights 'excessively late' or 'very late.' The higher rating is at first counter-intuitive but is probably explained by how a higher percentage of flights were on time, but the diversion delay may have bumped up the 'average' (probably meaning 'median') minutes of lateness.
QF9's performance could be described as appalling, with a FlightStats rating of nil out of 5 between MEL and DXB, and 0.7 out of 5 from DXB to LHR. A staggering 58 per cent of QF9 MEL - DXB flights have been in one of the three 'late' categories as above, while three of the 61 monitored flights have been diverted. While teh 'average' delay of 57 minutes is less than for one of the measures for QF1 above, what really drives QF9 down is how only 40 per cent of flights on this sector were on time.
Between DXB and LHR, QF9 has a claimed 'average' delay of 92 minutes with 26 per cent of these flights in one of the three 'late' categories.
QF2 from LHR down to DXB is given a worse rating than one might expect - I had thought its performance was quite good - but FlightStats 'awards' it 0.1 out of 5. Of the 62 recent flights monitored, 36 per cent were 'late' in some way, including 20 per cent' 'excessively late' or 'very late' and there was an average suggested delay of 64 minutes.
The second sector for QF2 from DXB to SYD is also given a harsher rating than one might think it deserved, with just 0.6 out of 5. 29 or 30 per cent (affected by a rounding error) of flights have been in one of the 'late' categories with the average delay similar to the initial sector at 62 minutes.
The LHR - DXB QF10, the lunchtime departure that I believe is a good time, an opinion not shared by many businessmen, is given 0.9 put of 5. This is a surprise as a few of us who read this thread may have perceived that QF2 was a superior timekeeping performer. The 'average' delay is said to be 34 minutes with 40 per cent of flights 'late' in some recognised way, and 18 per cent being 'very late' or 'excessively late.'
From DXB to MEL, QF10, the evening arrival in MEL, is given a surprising 3.6 out of 5. This does not match the performance from LHR to DXB but it may not include the latest delay tonight of in excess of two hours. 26 per cent of flights are said to be in a 'late' category with the average delay of 23 minutes.
The FlightStats figures would be vastly improved if they went back a whole year to account for seasonal variability.
That said, with QF publicly acknowledging that its LHR routes lose money (although no one outside the top management echelons may know how much), these results continue to be appalling.
Yesterday (Friday 3 March) for instance the SQ flight from SYD to SIN departed bang on time around lunchtime, while QF was around 20 hours late. That is a result at the extreme end of the scale but unfortunately delays, especially on QF9, are a far too regular feature.
However as noted above many Australians appear wedded to QF.
