Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[Melburnian1]

The delayed QF12 in the shape of VH-OQH is quite close to SYD but due to 'traffic' may not be at the gate until about 1825 hours as it had to overfly SYD airport. In turn this will make it hard for Moindardt to be pulling away from the gate right on 2000 hours on QF1 in first class. Let's hope that he is enjoying an additional G & T or whatever his 'poison' is.

The next QF12 (the 2200 hours Wednesday 16 September flight that has been delayed until an estimated 0150 hours Thursday 17 departure, 45 minutes from now as I write) may be late due to crew rest hours required of a minimum number of hours.

 

[Moindardt]

Yep. Just got the update to departure time being 2030. Wonderful start to trip. We had to check the kids into unattended minors in Brisbane and then wait till the got off last to pick them up and missed the shuttle over and had to wait another 20 mins, so by the time we finally got through to lounge 1.45 hrs after we landed, we missed both our spa appointments. It can only get better from here right?

 

[Melburnian1]

Moindardt, try to be positive and think (and pray for) the hundreds of millions of individuals in the world who lack the money to journey to the capital of their country, or the nearest adjoining country, compared with you, I and many AFFers who can rather routinely undertake extensive and sometimes inspiring journeys by air, rail or sea. How great to be able to be in Oxford 30 hours or so from departing east coast Australia.

The further positive is that it is possible to pick up a bit of time (say half an hour) on the schedule through to LHR going by what QF1 did in the last couple of days. If it does not occur, or you depart later than 2030 hours, relax in F.

 

[Moindardt]

It's ok. The deconstructed pavlova made up for it. All is right in the world again.

 

[jb747]

It's ok. The deconstructed pavlova made up for it. All is right in the world again.

You blew up a pavlova?

 

[Melburnian1]

I've had that dessert and it was delicious. From memory it had a berry coulis on top if I am using the correct term. I would have liked a second one....

 

[Melburnian1]

The delayed QF1 departed at 2031 hours and is now taxiing to takeoff from SYD, but as sometimes occurs Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker! is displaying a couple of question marks for its (according to this website, unknown destination) against the image of the aircraft(VH-OQH).

FR24 also showed the 12 hour late QF12 that the aircraft came in as arriving at some completely unrelated time. I don't even think it was a UTC time. Odd, but it has occurred before when flights of any airline are substantially late.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'd much rather be on the ground wishing I was in the air, than in the air wishing I were on the ground.

I'd much rather on the ground with hefty EU-type compensation in my pocket, wishing I was in the air.

Makes the 'wishing' a little more bearable

 

[Melburnian1]

Good point MEL_Traveller, although all airlines (not just QF) would vigorously lobby politicians never to introduce it for departures ex Oz.

Surely if such a matter came up there is a moral or ethical question about whether Federal Parliamentarians who are given "free" membership of the QF Chairman's Lounge and VA's The Lounge plus who travel in first class on overseas trips and in business class on domestic flights could properly determine such a matter. One wonders if all would have a 'conflict of interest' given how many secretly love such privileges and perks. I am not trying to be churlish, and it's true that in the private sector salaries and especially bonuses, share issues and the like that form total remuneration can be far higher, but no one mandates that person X has to go into politics.

Not however wishing to go off topic for too long, because this thread is about QF flight delays and cancellations, not compensation for same.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF96, a B744 flight from LAX to MEL is an expected 85 minutes late into the latter tomorrow morning (Friday 18 September) at 0625. The delayed QF12 departed LAX at 0208 on Thursday morning and is suggested as arriving in SYD at 0935, a little shy of three and a half hours late. It looks like it is having an excursion to DFW at 1300 hours tomorrow "at this stage" so that should - touch wood - avoid a delay to QF11 as the inbound aircraft from QF2 tomorrow morning is forming the 0950 hours from SYD to LAX, QF11.

One cannot use the word 'endemic' to describe delays on QF's MEL and SYD to LAX and return routes as that would be an exaggeration (BNE to LAX seems better, despite that B744 aircraft going on to JFK and returning from 'The Big Apple' with a tight turnaround) but 'not infrequent' would be an apt description.

 

[Melburnian1]

The delayed QF1 landed in DXB at 0439 hours, a little later than QF had forecast. In theory it should be in LHR with a bit of time up its sleeve to form QF10 to MEL at 1330 hours on Friday afternoon.

If aircraft like A380s operate a number of lengthy sectors punctuated by almost minimum time on the ground at each stop (for this plane, that has been the case in LAX, SYD, now DXB, soon LHR, then DXB, then MEL, then DXB before hopefully having a few hours stabled at LHR on Sunday afternoon London time if that turns out to be its rotations), does the chance of 'something electrical or mechanical going awry' increase (necessitating a longer, unscheduled stop to fix the problem) or is there little or no relationship because scheduled maintenance maximises the chances of close to trouble free operation?

 

[Melburnian1]

The QF10 departing LHR on Thursday 17 September had an unexceptional trip to DXB, departing a minute late at 1331 and arriving the latter at 2330, five minutes late. It then departed at 0145, 10 minutes late but was subsequently diverted to ADL - is this a first for a QF A388? - from where it departed last night (Friday 18) at 2038 for a 2217 hours arrival in MEL, 82 minutes late (not bad in the circumstances). The QANTAS Source | is as yet silent on this: perhaps it was an urgent medical diversion.

This morning the returning QF9 departed at 0106, two hours and 11 minutes late. As a consequence it will not be in DXB until a forecast 0845, an hour and 40 minutes late. QF rather optimistically suggests it will only spend 75 minutes in DXB (the timetable says 125 minutes, but a recent late running QF1 spent only 90 minutes enjoying the Arabian sands) with arrival in LHR predicted at 1430, only 40 minutes behind time.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF29 from MEL to HKG on Saturday 19 September 2015 departed 71 minutes late at 1131 and is predicted to be 50 minutes late into HKG at 1850. All being well, this should not delay tonight's flights back to Oz.

 

[Melburnian1]

Not a good day for the small number of QFi departures from MEL, as QF35 to SIN is now to be delayed from 1145 to a forecast 1400 departure. This means a 1950 hours arrival in SIN, five minutes shy of two hours late. From memory this A330 usually then runs to BNE overnight on QF52 that has a timetabled departure of 2050 hours ex SIN tonight, so expect that to be at least marginally late although the Qantas | Book airfares on Australia Pacific’s Best Airline as yet discloses nothing about the latter's 'delay'.

 

[Melburnian1]

The delayed QF35 from MEL to SIN today (Saturday 19 September) did not depart until 1458 and so is not due at SIN until 2055, three hours late. QF52 is thus delayed from its usual 2055 hours departure for sunny BrisVegas until a forecast 2200 hours in The Lion City tonight, arriving BNE on Sunday 20 September at a forecast 0720 instead of the usual 0615. 65 minutes would be a very good turnaround time for an A330: often it is a minimum of 70 minutes. One feels for the cleaners in this sort of circumstance as they have to do all that bending into seat pockets and ridding the carpets of coughroach attracting crumbs in double quick time.

 

[Melburnian1]

We would need input from AFFers on site this morning to verify the cause and whether related to the 0700 - 0900 hours strike by Australian Border Force staff, but QF81 this morning (Monday 21 September 2015) departed SYD 59 minutes late at 1119 and is forecast to be in SIN at 1750, 65 minutes late.

 

[Melburnian1]

In the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics airline punctuality statistics for August 2015 in which VA again beat QF for most punctual major domestic airline (the sixth month in which VA has done so), TT came third and JQ was at the back of the 'mainline' pack, what is also apparent is the high rate of flight cancellations on some routes, particularly with QantasLink.

Sometimes these are skewed by relatively low flight frequencies (if 80 flights are timetabled and 10 are cancelled, that is a greater than 10 per cent cancellation rate), but some examples for QF include BNE to GLT (15 flights cancelled for a 7.2 per cent cancellation rate); BNE to MOV (an unfortunate abbreviation in the circumstances if one adds an 'E' to 'MOV' as that's precisley what was not occurring - 17 flights cancelled, 14.2 per cent - and CBR - MEL - 11 and 13.4 per cent respectively with CR to SYD also very high at 39 and 7.6 per cent respectively.

A possible reason for a couple of these routes is the decline in the coal (and other mining) sectors. Surely this must be resulting in patronage drops.

If a surface travel operator had these rates of cancellations, there would be a lot of complaints. It is true that it is preferable to be on the ground with problems than in the air with problems but these flights may be cancelled for a range of reasons including insufficient bookings. Yet the airline has advertised and sold seats on such a flight so passengers have an expectation that it operates, just as they do with surface transport.

 

[RickyT84]

QF 82 from Sunday, 20th September (STD of 20:20) departed SIN close to 16.5 hours late (ATD 12:48 on Monday, 21st September). The aircraft concerned (VH-QPF) came in from BNE on time which indicated there was a technical problem with the aircraft after arrival into SIN.

 

[jb747]

The QF10 departing LHR on Thursday 17 September had an unexceptional trip to DXB, departing a minute late at 1331 and arriving the latter at 2330, five minutes late. It then departed at 0145, 10 minutes late but was subsequently diverted to ADL - is this a first for a QF A388? -

They've been to Adelaide before, though the last I can recall was when the 10 out of Singapore to Melbourne.

 

[Melburnian1]

Although the QF94 A388 arrival in MEL (ex LAX) creditably rolled in two minutes early at 0733 on Wednesday 23 September 2015, the return working back to LAX (QF93) was initially this morning shown as delayed until 1200. This has now been altered to a 1645 hours departure - if we had European style compensation in Oz those payments would 'kick in' - with QF expecting arrival in LAX at 1310 hours on the same day. At this stage that should not affect the Wednesday late evening LAX time departure of QF94 as the gap between QF93's late arrival and QF94's timetabled departure should still be 'generous' if I can use that description.

A new technical and cabin crew may have had to be rostered on due to the 'extra' delay (since QF altering in the late morning the time of forecast departure from the initially 'known' delay of just over two hours to a seven hour delay suggests that initally QF was unaware that the delay would be so lengthy.) With the pilots having a longer rest period than the cabin crew in LAX if my memory of what has been said previously is correct, is there a minimum rest period in the City of the Angels that the tech crew must have to then take QF94 (or QF12) back to MEL (or SYD) respectively?