Hey there Melburnian, today I was booked to fly Qantas BNE-CBR on QF1549, departing BNE at 14:10....It really feels that this change was simply an amalgamation of un-full flights. Do they do this??
juddles, since I don't work for an airline, I can't give a definitive answer, but your experience brought back a memory of when I was on an AN flight (737 I think) from MEL to CBR probably 20 years ago and we had 11 passengers. That was my 'smallest number on an RPT major airline' experience.
Did you happen to notice how full the economy section was?
Remember that in the conditions of contract between we travellers and Australian domestic airlines, guaranteeing same day uplift and arrival is not stipulated, but airlines suggest they'll use their best endeavours to get us to our destination on the day we've booked.
In the last week, yesterday was the only day on which this flight had been cancelled.
There could be other reasons, such as an inoperable plane or unavailable flight or (less likely) cabin crew.
However domestic flights cost thousands of dollars to operate, as Mattg recently highlighted in an article for we AFFers.
QF and its competitors are not altruists. Lke any passenger carrying business, surface or air, the number of travellers booked (or in the case of unbooked surface travel, who front) will vary markedly from day to day.
It's not in airlines' interests to spend $40,000 in operating two return flights if the revenue is only $15,000, and passenger numbers are small.
If there are large timetabled gaps between flights, it's probably less desirable to cancel a flight due to low bookings because it results in travellers waiting hours. And if a route runs once a day, it means a legacy airline may have to put passengers up in hotels if no alternative route is available same day.
Low passenger loadings would often have to be the case both ways because if flights were busy one way, cancelling a return flight means the airline has a problem in one direction in how to reaccommodate passengers without (in the case of CBR to BNE) having to send some via SYD, adding much time to a journey and annoying travellers who because it is QF have in many cases paid higher fares than on VA.
A 1410 hours departure is too early for those who had a full day's meetings in Brisbane to return to Canberra, so one could call it an offpeak flight. However one might expect the return flight from Canberra to be busier, especially when Federal Parliament has been sitting, as usually it doesn't sit on Fridays, especially the House of Representatives.
Thursdays are probably busier than Tuesdays and Wednesdays on most Australian domestic routes, but not as busy as Fridays (or Sunday afternoons).
So on balance, it's highly likely that all up there were fewer than 125 passengers (in total) booked on these two B717 1410 and 1530 hours departures. I agree with you that low bookings is a probable cause of your 80 minute delay.
Airline staff often decline to give out information (or sometimes may not know, and unfortunately can tell untruths as well if they do know) but did you ask anyone as to the cause of cancellation?
