Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[Must...Fly!]

Looking at this, seems the cloud might be coming back toward DPS? Volcanic Ash Graphics 7

Edit: QF7045 is over the NT/WA border at the moment.

 

[Melburnian1]

Must...Fly, there is minimal activity at DPS with flights. A fluid situation?

Still, the special QF7045 (B744 VH-OJT) has not turned back to SYD.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Looks like plenty of activity at the moment. JQ bringing in a 787 from Singapore.

 

[Melburnian1]

The special working QF7045 (B744 VH-OJT) arrived in DPS at 1051 hours, 46 minutes late on Thursday 30 November 2017.

 

[Himeno]

Looking at this, seems the cloud might be coming back toward DPS? Volcanic Ash Graphics 7

The VAAC forecast shows the ash cloud to be moving south east. DPS is at the southern tip of the island - the same island the volcano is on. The ash is moving over the island of Mataram.

 

[Must...Fly!]

The VAAC forecast shows the ash cloud to be moving south east. DPS is at the southern tip of the island - the same island the volcano is on. The ash is moving over the island of Mataram.

The images have been updated. Looked a little more precarious this morning

 

[Melburnian1]

Also on Thursday 30 November, QF81 from SYD departed 36 late at 1211 hours with SIN arrival suggested as 35 late at 1720.

QF117 (1305 hours SYD - HKG main flight) pushed back 74 minutes late, so predicted arrival has become 50 late at 2005 this evening local time.

 

[Flyerqf]

QF117 was downgraded to a 333 due to the 744 that went to DPS.

 

[Melburnian1]

B744 VH-OJT, the aircraft to which Flyerqf just referred, is on the relief QF7046 from DPS down to SYD. This scheduled 1205 hours departure became takeoff at 1431. SYD arrival should be at 2250 hours, 140 late. If it had been further delayed so that it missed the 2300 hours SYD curfew, it would have to have had a 99.998 per cent chance of being approved for an 'exemption' by the mysterious Ministerial 'delegate.'

 

[BLK343]

B744 VH-OJT, the aircraft to which Flyerqf just referred, is on the relief QF7046 from DPS down to SYD. This scheduled 1205 hours departure became takeoff at 1431. SYD arrival should be at 2250 hours, 140 late. If it had been further delayed so that it missed the 2300 hours SYD curfew, it would have to have had a 99.998 per cent chance of being approved for an 'exemption' by the mysterious Ministerial 'delegate.'

I was one of many who got saved by this special flight. Reason for the delayed departure is they wanted to get as many people in as possible. Barely made it prior to the curfew. It was that late that SmartGate was not operational (I assume no one was stationed in front of the screens to scan pictures)

 

[jb747]

I see that the 94 has diverted to Sydney. I’d expect that if the weather actually lives up to the forecast, both today and tomorrow will have extensive delays on the ground, as well as holding and some diversions. The long hauls flights will be the ones most at risk of diversion. If the bad weather happens simultaneously at a number of the major east coast airports, it will be doubly interesting.

 

[Melburnian1]

jb747, while not without challenges and very rainy in some of Victoria, thus far (touch wood) southeast Australian weather is not uniformly quite as bad as the extreme, sensationalist BOM and media predictions.

QF421, 0930 hours SYD - MEL (A332 VH-EBP) was airborne at 1027 and should arrive 44 late at 1149.

QF796, also an 0930 hours that in its case took off from MEL at 1042 for ASP looks to be arriving at 1202, 72 minutes behind. VH-VXT is the B738.

The 0930 hours MEL - SYD QF420 (VH-VYK) took off at 1020 so it should be on blocks at approximately 1151 hours, 56 minutes behind time.

The 0655 hours from BNE down to MEL, QF609 (B738 VH-VZZ) did not take off until 0809, so it should be at its allocated airport gate at roughly 1126 hours, 71 late.

 

[Melburnian1]

I was one of many who got saved by this special flight. Reason for the delayed departure is they wanted to get as many people in as possible. Barely made it prior to the curfew. It was that late that SmartGate was not operational (I assume no one was stationed in front of the screens to scan pictures)

BLK343, I take it you are implying that security and immigration at DPS had long lines or check-in was not as orderly as usual? Great information.

 

[BLK343]

BLK343, I take it you are implying that security and immigration at DPS had long lines or check-in was not as orderly as usual? Great information.

Sorry, I meant at SYD as we landed just before 11pm and Immigration staff didnt expect a B747 at this time of the night. Normally you would just breeze through SmartGate to the carousel. Last night, each passenger had to go through a manned counter for processing.

Needless to say though in DPS, immigration a mess (although security was a breeze). Surely they know a lot of people will be leaving, so plan accordingly instead of having 6-8 of the 20 booths manned

 

[Melburnian1]

...Needless to say though in DPS, immigration a mess (although security was a breeze). Surely they know a lot of people will be leaving, so plan accordingly instead of having 6-8 of the 20 booths manned

While it can depend when you arrive and whether flights arrive in quick succession, about half of the international airports to which I've been have fewer than 50 per cent of the immigration booths manned. Governments love to milk travellers with departure taxes but won't spend a liuttle more on departure or arrival clearance. There can be APEC cards and the like for the few, but that doesn't solve it for the majority.

 

[Melburnian1]

In further on Friday 1 December, the normally punctual QF41 departed 90 minutes late at 1525 mid afternoon from SYD with A332 VH-EBM. Arrival should be 125 late at 1935 at CGK.

Passengers on the 0945 hours from MEL to HKG have had a shocker of a day with departure at 1846. Hong Kong arrival is suggested as 0045 on Saturday 2 rather than 1615 hours.

QF30 tonight should depart HKG for MEL at 1900 hours, 55 minutes late.

The 1905 hours HKG - BNE, QF98 should push back at 0150 hours on Saturday for arrival at 1225 instead of 0550 hours.

QF93 was affected by the diversion of QF94 to SYD (see above) so it departed MEL at 1521 (246 minutes late) with arrival suggested as 1005 hours, 210 minutes tardy.

The late morning scheduled 1135 hours SYD - SIN (QF81) was off blocks 68 late; arrival was estimated as 73 minutes behind time at 1758 hours.

QF63 is identically timed away as QF63 but it was 130 minutes late leaving. Its delayed arrival is forecast as 1900 hours, 145 minutes late. QF64 will be late arriving in SYD on Saturday 2.

The 1250 hours SYD - SCL B744 (QF27) did not depart until 1532. Expected arrival is 1315 hours, 125 late so rather similar to QF63 that is many thousands of kilometres away. QF28 back into SYD on Saturday 2 will be delayed.

 

[Melburnian1]

Saturday 2 December has QF64 from JNB to SYD predicted to arrive at 1735 hours late this afternoon, 125 minutes tardy as on Friday 1 departed at 2045 hours, 115 late due to the delayed arrival of QF63 as above. This means that QF73 on Saturday, the scheduled 1755 hours to SFO should depart SYD at 1930 hours.

QF30 from HKG to MEL arrived 57 late at 0732 on Saturday 2.

The very late projected arrival at 1249 hours on Saturday of QF98 (ex HKG at 0222 this morning, A333 VH-QPD) means the returning QF97 is forecast to depart BNE at 1445 hours for arrival in the major Asian business centre at 2130, 300 minutes (five hours) late. It looks like that tonight, QF97 is forming QF98 and not QF30, as 98 is showing as commencing projected pushing back at 2235 hours (210 minutes late, but an optimistic call given that from observation A332s/A333s internationally take at least 75 minutes to turn around.) Suggested Sunday 3 morning arrival in BNE is 0925 instead of 0550.

The Friday 1 December QF9 (A388 VH-OQG) , scheduled out at 2325 did not depart until 0051 on Saturday (86 minutes tardy.) Estimated DXB arrival is 0734, 64 minutes late with departure delayed by half an hour to 0900 for a LHR arrival only 15 minutes behind schedule at 1255, once again showing how much time can sometimes be picked up on the complete QF9 schedule from off blocks in MEL to on blocks in LHR.

 

[Anna]

I see that the 94 has diverted to Sydney.

It did, for refuelling due to projected ATC delays in MEL they said. I was onboard I was pretty surprised that when the flight crew ex LAX ran out of hours on the ground in SYD, a new flight crew was onboard within an hour or so. The cabin crew just had to keep going, poor things

Then when QF94 landed in MEL, there was a very long unexplained delay with the bags, about 45 mins standing around the carousel with no info provided.

QF683 was originally scheduled to depart MEL for ADL at 11.40am. It had some sort of mechanical issue. Once they had sorted that out with a new aircraft, they then decided to hold it to wait for 53 pax booked to connect to QF683 from QF94. QF683 ended up arriving in ADL about 3.5 hours late, including about 90 mins on the ground in MEL loaded and ready to go but waiting for the int pax to get their bags, get through the incredibly long dom security lines and get onboard. One pax started making a loud fuss about the hold-up but calmed down before he got kicked off the flight.

Once QF683 was in the air, the captain announced that if they had not held the flight, the 53 pax from QF94 would not have been able to fly to ADL for more than 48 hours because all the flights were booked solid for the cricket So thanks to QF for holding it! I will forgive the fact that my bag did not arrive when I did

 

[Melburnian1]

Anna, your excellent report is in the format of being a 'quote' rather than the usual font.

I wasn't there and you were, but if the noisy chap had totally calmed down, why should he be kicked off the flight (assuming he wasn't drunk, swearing or aggressive.) Is this a case of QF staff being overly politically correct? The chap may have had legitimate reasons for wanting the flight to be punctual. While we are not the USA, if this was a flight in the USA there's a chance that far more than one passenger would be loudly complaining. In mainland China, it might be even more magnified!

Great information that there were 53 connecting from QF94 to the ADL-bound flight. This is one reason why despite many of us such as the redoubtable AFF member drron liking day flights to and ex (say) northeast or southeast Asia, sometimes they do not carry as many connecting passengers as the overnight flights (due to 'missing' same day connecting flights at one end, or even both) and so if airlines ranked flights in terms of seat occupancy, the day flights might not come up trumps.

Anna's aircraft, B738 VH-VZO subsequently yesterday operated QF1294 from ADL up to BNE and QF633 from BNE down to MEL, the latter arriving at 2217, 87 minutes late after Anna had arrived in ADL earlier in the day at 1532 which was 192 minutes late.

While probably unconnected, it is about 48 minutes late this morning (Saturday 2) on QF702 from MEL up to CNS.

 

[serfty]

Then when QF94 landed in MEL, there was a very long unexplained delay with the bags, about 45 mins standing around the carousel with no info provided.

There were some heavy storms approaching MEL in the early afternoon.