Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[docjames]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Do we have a reason for the return as yet?

Three in quick succession seems unlucky.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Could someone who has a Twitter account please pop a brief, sensible comment 'on' to try to obtain a response from QF as to why QF7 returned to SYD?

 

[dfcatch]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Could someone who has a Twitter account please pop a brief, sensible comment 'on' to try to obtain a response from QF as to why QF7 returned to SYD?

Electrical issues affecting IFE and toilets

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Here is a report of the SYD - DFW flight turnback:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/dallasbound-qantas-flight-returns-to-sydney-20141208-122wqz.html

Monday 8 December's QF8 has now been supposedly retimed to depart DFW at 1040 on Tuesday 9 December with a forecast Wednesday 10 December arrival of 2010 in the evening at SYD.

However given that the delayed QF7 this morning (Tuesday) is not now timetabled to depart until 1030 for a predicted 0840 Tuesday morning arrival in DFW, this is an impossible departure time for the return working. The further delay means that QF8 wilo be getting close to breaching curfew on Wednesday evening, although airlines can be good at pulling out all stops and trying to turn delayed planes around as quickly as possible.

The delayed QF10 arrival last night in MEL (due 2135, arrive 2306) was turned around back to DXB and LHR for an 0048 departure this morning, 73 minutes behind schedule but meaning that a presumably close to full A380, its cargo, baggage and catering offloading and loading could all occur in an impressive 102 minutes. Based on that, QF8 might be able to depart DFW on Tuesday at around 1200 and be in SYD by 2130 (earlier if the pilots casn pick up a bit of time.)

 

[milehighclub]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Why is it impossible? QF schedules around 100 minutes for the transit in DXB (as does EK when their aircraft transit to/from NZ) so 120 minutes should be plenty. My guess though it will leave around 11. The return flight only has an hour and a half buffer for a delay (because of duty limitations) so if it's still on the ground at 1210, it would be cancelled again, so it will be well and truly gone by then.

 

[michaele]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Saturday 6 December's QF2 from LHR and DXB to SYD (VH-OQG) has commenced an unscheduled stop in PER. The QF website shows it planned to depart from PER at 0445 (0745 AEDT) for an 1125 arrival in SYD, four hours and 35 minutes late.

Who says QFi doesn't service PER?

 

[clazman]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

I saw the 380 there yesterday morning as we taxied out to the runway... and it wasn't even connected to the terminal... they had its cough pointing to towards the international terminal in a snub

 

[mannej]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

I saw the 380 there yesterday morning as we taxied out to the runway... and it wasn't even connected to the terminal... they had its cough pointing to towards the international terminal in a snub

What time was that? Bearing in mind the pax would have been deplaned early morning, there probably wasn't a need to have it connected to a gate.

 

[clazman]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

7ish... so as you say put into storage

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

QF-OQL is now winging its way to DFW as it departed SYD at 1047 this morning, with a predicted same day arrival time in DFW as the delayed QF7D at 0855. This is a swap of A388 from yesterday's VH-OQD.

milehighclub, yes, a 1040 departure from DFW is indeed possible: apologies. You are probably correct to suggest off blocks 'around 11.' Time will tell. Thank you for the additional interesting information about the limited extra available crew time. I bet many passengers on the delayed QF8 are unaware of that!

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

The empty PER - SYD working of A388 (flight QF6002) VH-OQG is about to land in SYD at about 1705.

Looks like it will operate QF11 from SYD to LAX that has been delayed from 1500 to 1930 hours today.

 

[Quickstatus]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

I wonder if IRROPS such as these in an environment of "improved aircraft utilisation" will cause more delays downstream

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Quickstatus, the logical answer is 'yes' but for QF and any other transport operator (air/ rail/ coach) there is a tradeoff.

If QF finds that it saves millions of dollars a year from improved A388 fleet utilisation, it doubtless hopes that the number of unplanned delays is minimal. This helps to keep or bring shareholders on side while not aggravating passengers and freight forwarders too much.

If you look back at the last two or three pages, I and others have highlighted some recent significant delays. This is annoying for passengers, bothersome for staff and costly for the airline (accommodating 150 out of towners in SYD or MEL who can't just be given return taxi vouchers to spend another night at home is not cheap even at airline negotiated hotel rates, and it can be hard to find largish numbers of rooms at short notice.) There's also the (temporary?) loss of goodwill from passengers who miss their first business appointments, or who cut it fine and are connecting to a train or a coach tour overseas. The latter does happen: some schedule even holidays tightly. I've done that to try to get the most out of finite time off.

As we see with the QF7 delay and QF2 PER unplanned flight termination, these delays flow on to other flights (respectively in these cases QF8 and QF11.)

It would be good to read the views of regular flyers such as Princess Fiona, John K, blackcat and so on: do these AFFers have a 'forgiving' mentality when it comes to these sometimes lengthy delays provided they have a hotel room in which to sleep, use WiFi and dine, or are they annoyed?

Compounding the difficulty is the instant 'Twitterverse', Facebook and most especially a media that not just wants to be first with the latest but also hypercritical at times. The community sort of knows that modes such as planes and trains are inherently far safer than travelling on a motorbike or in a car, but that means when an incident occurs, it's widely publicised even if these's no loss of life nor was there ever going to be.

Nonetheless, QF would not want to repeat the last couple of days too often.

It will be especially interesting to see if the European and USA winters (plus Vancouver, now that QF has six return flights scheduled) affect the punctuality of the A388 and B744 fleet in an even more adverse way.

 

[dfcatch]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Quickstatus, the logical answer is 'yes' but for QF and any other transport operator (air/ rail/ coach) there is a tradeoff.

If QF finds that it saves millions of dollars a year from improved A388 fleet utilisation, it doubtless hopes that the number of unplanned delays is minimal. This helps to keep or bring shareholders on side while not aggravating passengers and freight forwarders too much.

If you look back at the last two or three pages, I and others have highlighted some recent significant delays. This is annoying for passengers, bothersome for staff and costly for the airline (accommodating 150 out of towners in SYD or MEL who can't just be given return taxi vouchers to spend another night at home is not cheap even at airline negotiated hotel rates, and it can be hard to find largish numbers of rooms at short notice.) There's also the (temporary?) loss of goodwill from passengers who miss their first business appointments, or who cut it fine and are connecting to a train or a coach tour overseas. The latter does happen: some schedule even holidays tightly. I've done that to try to get the most out of finite time off.

As we see with the QF7 delay and QF2 PER unplanned flight termination, these delays flow on to other flights (respectively in these cases QF8 and QF11.)

It would be good to read the views of regular flyers such as Princess Fiona, John K, blackcat and so on: do these AFFers have a 'forgiving' mentality when it comes to these sometimes lengthy delays provided they have a hotel room in which to sleep, use WiFi and dine, or are they annoyed?

Compounding the difficulty is the instant 'Twitterverse', Facebook and most especially a media that not just wants to be first with the latest but also hypercritical at times. The community sort of knows that modes such as planes and trains are inherently far safer than travelling on a motorbike or in a car, but that means when an incident occurs, it's widely publicised even if these's no loss of life nor was there ever going to be.

Nonetheless, QF would not want to repeat the last couple of days too often.

It will be especially interesting to see if the European and USA winters (plus Vancouver, now that QF has six return flights scheduled) affect the punctuality of the A388 and B744 fleet in an even more adverse way.

The short answer is as long as we're accommodated, and suitably prioritised for the next available service - there is no big issue.

This assumes you're not missing a cruise connection, wedding, funeral, barmitzvah or similar - but most of us factor possible delay calculations into critical event timings.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Tonight's news that a fourth QF flight turned back (this time a B717 ex HBA flying to MEL - reveals defensiveness in the Qantas CEO's response:

Fourth Qantas plane turned back after light goes off in cabin'

As noted in previous posts on this thread, the contracted operation of B717s between MEL and HBA is far from the most punctual QF sector on its domestic network. There is regular late running exacerbated by tight turnarounds.

 

[ketsuzei]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Tonight's news that a fourth QF flight turned back (this time a B717 ex HBA flying to MEL - reveals defensiveness in the Qantas CEO's response:

That may be something to do with people trying to connect essentially unrelated events.

 

[mannej]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

That may be something to do with people trying to connect essentially unrelated events.

Or outsourced maintenance...

 

[milehighclub]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Usual media response. An event like QF2 happens and then every diversion or turn around for the next week gets reported.

On it's own, that HBA wouldn't even make page 100, let alone the front of a website.

Anyway due to these series of unfortunate events, the QF11 is delayed tomorrow till 2210 as it is waiting for the delayed QF8 to arrive.

 

[ketsuzei]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Or outsourced maintenance...

Long bow, drawn.

 

[JohnM]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

This assumes you're not missing a cruise connection, wedding, funeral, barmitzvah or similar - but most of us factor possible delay calculations into critical event timings.

Many don't - and then bellyache .