Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[Quickstatus]

Wouo really like to get people's experiences re service recovery in these situations.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF546, the 1835 from SYD to BNE (B738 VH-VXQ) may be at the terminal by 1850 hours, 45 minutes late. It would not want to be much later as it is due to form QF559, the 2015 hours back from BNE to SYD that is timetabled into the latter at 220 hours and hence, if more than half an hour late is unlikely to make the SYD curfew given that with such a stack of aircraft waiting to take off in BNE, it is unlikely to achieve a 'fast run' down to SYD.

In some previous situations like this the Federal Minister for Transport's delegate has declined to approve a dispensation to land later than the 2300 hours curfew applying for Sydney's airport. Paragraph 11 in the guidelines may be especially relevant:

https://infrastructure.gov.au/aviat...ews/SydneyAirport/DispensationGuidelines.aspx

That said, the airline staff doubtless do their best to get flights 'away' and 'down to SYD' in the minimum possible time if there is a view that the plane may just scrape in before the deadline, but they are not magicians.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

QF551 BNE-SYD first to board after reopening, departing at 19:40 for a revised 22:15 arrival (approx).

 

[Melburnian1]

If QF551 departs at 1940 Queensland time (which is 2040 Sydney time), surely it would not arrive SYD, at the earliest, until 2155 rather than '2015', ComeFlyWithMe?

QF1550 from CBR to BNE is about to touch down at 1945, 75 minutes late - B717 VH-YQV.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

If QF551 departs at 1940 Queensland time (which is 2040 Sydney time), surely it would not arrive SYD, at the earliest, until 2155 rather than '2015', ComeFlyWithMe?

QF1550 from CBR to BNE is about to touch down at 1945, 75 minutes late - B717 VH-YQV.

Sorry typo. 22:15. Will correct.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

QF551 pushing back at 20:10, in queue for departure, which may take some time. Issues with duty times for crew, and if the queue is too long we may be towed back to gate as this would violate the duty hours.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

QF551 pushed back at 19:56, in queue for imminent departure. Fingers crossed we are ahead in the queue and can get to SYD tonight.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

QF551 to depart shortly, revised ETA of 22:30. Likely many pending flights will miss curfew tonight.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF555 from BNE to SYD, the 1855 hours departure has been cancelled. It looks like ComeFlyWithMe will be OK, and by quite a margin. VA has also cancelled a couple of flghts, one from BNE and one from OOL to SYD late this evening (29 November.)

QF557 (the 1915 hours from BNE to SYD) departed at 2011 but did not take off until 2033 BNE time, so should just be OK - touch wood - to get into SYD.

QF553 operated by B738 VH-VZM, the 1825 hours from BNE to SYD took off at 2043 so again it is cutting it fine as that is in the air at 2143 Sydney time.

QF559, the 1945 hours departure, took off from BNE at 2048 for SYD, but presumably can 'make it.' VH-VXQ is the 'racehorse' involved.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

QF551 arrived SYD at 22:30 with plenty of time to spare. Later flights may not be so lucky. All the best to those delayed.
All international connections appear to have been missed according to announcements.

 

[Melburnian1]

This is from Latest & Breaking News Melbourne, Victoria | The Age (stablemate to Australian Breaking News Headlines & World News Online | SMH.com.au and Brisbane Times - Brisbane News, Queensland News & World News) tonight:

A spokesman for Brisbane Airport Corporation said that services from the airport had not been affected by the storms.
-------------------
How do these public affairs people get away with such lies, and why don't journalists do a two minute check of flight times to see the veracity or otherwise of such a claim?

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

This is from Latest & Breaking News Melbourne, Victoria | The Age (stablemate to Australian Breaking News Headlines & World News Online | SMH.com.au and Brisbane Times - Brisbane News, Queensland News & World News) tonight:

A spokesman for Brisbane Airport Corporation said that services from the airport had not been affected by the storms.
-------------------
How do these public affairs people get away with such lies, and why don't journalists do a two minute check of flight times to see the veracity or otherwise of such a claim?

Because most news outlets these days just regurgitate press releases.

 

[Melburnian1]

Sometimes in the early morning one can rub one's eyes at what one sees. This is the case on Wednesday 2 December with QF1494, the Tuesday 1 December Qantaslink flight from CBR to SYD scheduled as a 2000 hours departure not departing until about 0725 this morning - apparently almost 12 hours late - with arrival slated for 0816 this morning not 2055 last night. Aircraft is Q400 VH-QOP, so something must have gone wrong last night.

How did last night's passengers get to SYD?

 

[YSSY]

QF917 Karratha to Perth via Port Hedland (Magical mystery tour)

Had an interesting experience yesterday; arrived at Karratha to catch the last flight out to Perth to be told that we were heading back via Port Hedland but they'd endeavour for us to make our connections onwards (Brisbane/Sydney/Melbourne).
It turned out that an aircraft had gone tech in Port Hedland and an Engineer was onboard our aircraft who we would take there. After arriving in Port Hedland the repair was taking longer then expected, so Port Hedland pax who had onward connections were transferred onto our aircraft. When we finally flew on to Perth, the Port Hedland flight was shortly behind us.
The airline and crew seemed to do everything they could to make up time, communicated well throughout and updated us on our connections. As it happened the advised Qantas would hold back the Brisbane/Sydney flight, so we arrived on stand about 2320 and within 10 minutes the doors were closed on the Brisbane/Sydney flights and on our way. Amazingly our bags made it too.

Overall, was really impressed with how Qantas resolved this!

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: QF917 Karratha to Perth via Port Hedland (Magical mystery tour)

YSSY, many thanks. You may mean '2320' (hours) rather than '1120.'

As you suggest, QF917, the 1920 from KTA to PER departed only eight minutes late at 1928. Diverted, it was in PHE from 1958 to 2121 and then arrived PER at 2308 instead of the usual 2120. QF568 then departed PER 22 minutes late at 2327 (after what indeed must have been a fast transfer for airline passengers, bearing in mind that they cannot ever 'switch platforms' as quickly as passengers with suitcases can on trains), arriving SYD at 0631 on Wednesday 2 December, 16 minutes behind time. Meanwhile JQ989 was 57 minutes late on Tuesday night at 2352 ex PER, arriving SYD at 0713 this morning, 63 minutes tardy.

Meanwhile QF648 ex PER for MEL departed on time at 2340, arriving MEL this morning a minute late at 0616.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: QF917 Karratha to Perth via Port Hedland (Magical mystery tour)

QF19 on Wednesday 2 December arrived MNL 16 minutes late at 1746 but the returning QF20 to SYD (VH-QPG) has been delayed by an hour from 1900 local time to an expected 2000 hours in departing.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: QF917 Karratha to Perth via Port Hedland (Magical mystery tour)

QF626 from MEL to BNE, the 1605 hours departure on Friday 4 December 2015 did not take off until 1716. The following QF632, the 1805 departure took off at 1855 tonight.

QF2086 from MEL to MQL is delayed from its timetabled 1900 to an expected 2000. This route has been running quite well lately but a few months ago had many late flights.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: QF917 Karratha to Perth via Port Hedland (Magical mystery tour)

B738 VH-VZT operating QF401 from SYD to MEL on Saturday 5 December was timetabled in at 0735 but landed at 0803.

That is nothing particularly unusual, but this aircraft and several others appear to have overflown MEL at a low altitude and then again approached the airport, looking at www.flightradar24.com

There may well be a simple explanation such as a wind directional change or congestion. Other flights to have also done this include AI308 from DEL to MEL (B788 VT-ANM), VA252 from CBR to MEL (E190 VH-ZPQ) and QF1527 from CBR to MEL (B717 VH-YQV), the latter now running about 38 minutes late after being on time ex CBR and continuing to undertake quite an interesting (complex) looking holding pattern.

Perhaps AFFers who are experts at looking at flight approaches can advise. There has not been any fog forecast (is there some at the airport?) but relative humidity is 100 per cent and there is an 11 kilometre an hour WNW wind.

QF36, the 1950 hours SIN to MEL on Friday 4 is in a holding pattern and likely to be at the gate at about 0835, a tad more than two hours late as it did not take off last night until 2224. A333 VH-QPE is the aircraft.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: QF917 Karratha to Perth via Port Hedland (Magical mystery tour)

QF409 (SYD - MEL) has just advised that because its landing time in MEL is 75 minutes away, it is diverting to CBR. B738 VH-XZG is the aircraft. It arrived CBR at 0859 and departed at 1017 for a forecast 1121 arrival in MEL, two hours and 46 minutes late. This will delay the northbound QF426 back to SYD from its timetabled 1100 to a projected 1150 departure ex MEL.

QF1500, the first of the morning from HBA to MEL is timetabled away at 0550 but did not take off until 0742 and like many other aircraft is now in a holding pattern. This may mean that all the QF flights today on this route are badly late.

A crew member of QF674 (ADL - MEL) has just asked about the likely delay and was advised by ATC that the 'system is showing 54 minutes but it is very unreliable.') It eventually arrived in MEL at 0942, 67 minutes late.

QF1501, the 0745 from MEL to HBA took off at 1015 and is expected to arrive at 1115, 135 minutes late.

 

[whughes3]

Re: QF917 Karratha to Perth via Port Hedland (Magical mystery tour)

MEL this morning (5/12) was a mess because of fog: very strange, because there was little or no fog evident round the city or on the way to the airport, but once you got there and facing airside round 7:30, it was solid pea soup! QF 420 was delayed by almost 1 hour because the cabin crew were from one of the diverted flights.