Qantas repatriation flight from London

[milehighclub]

Mind you that's nothing given the QF110 LHR-DRW flight in the air right now has 161 people on board (according to the J+Y seat maps

It is higher than that.

Also there are seats blocked for operational staff because we don't have the staff that would usually be in place, especially for ports that are not part of the network. So engineers, catering, ground staff are positioned around with each flight.

 

[justinbrett]

It is higher than that.

Also there are seats blocked for operational staff because we don't have the staff that would usually be in place, especially for ports that are not part of the network. So engineers, catering, ground staff are positioned around with each flight.

I very much doubt we are flying catering staff around the world - they would be using airport contracts. I think the majority of ground staff as well, considering Qantas is even outsourcing them in Australia.

I do believe DFAT have personnel on the ground assisting but for places like LHR I assume they are staying in location.

 

[milehighclub]

I very much doubt we are flying catering staff around the world - they would be using airport contracts. I think the majority of ground staff as well, considering Qantas is even outsourcing them in Australia.

I say catering staff - maybe 2 - not an entire catering crew. Whilst LHR and LAX are some exceptions, catering staff go as most flights are double catered ex AUS and they assist the local catering with removing the catering that needs to be chilled.

Ground staff, again, not many, but have been on flights because ports that you don't fly into, won't have staff that are trained in QF procedures, so you need to have QF staff on hand. This is not uncommon - in normal circumstances you would send the staff you need up in advance. Given the situation, the staff have to go on these flights.

To add:
I also note that obviously when flights divert, there are not staff in place and aircraft can depart, but when you are scheduling a flight like this, it makes sense to have your staff available. It's not like there are 40 seats blocked for staff. LHR and LAX probably only have a couple, with non network ports a little bit more.

 

[sudoer]

You still need to remember the United States has the 2nd highest number of Aussies living abroad. Those coming from Canada are also able to transit via the US meaning the number in Canada+US is quite high.

The number of Aussies living abroad is irrelevant in this case. It's the number of Aussies trying to get home which is relevant.

If I lived in the USA right now and wanted to come home, I would have no trouble booking a seat on AA's LAX-SYD flight tomorrow. Compare that with the UK where virtually all routes home are at capacity until IATA Summer Season starts.



If using strategic transit hubs through Asia is too hard, the state governments should be adjusting allocations on a month by month basis to reflect where seats are in most demand.

 

[Toula92122]

I would imagine Aussies in the US are of a different demographic than those stranded in Europe or India. There would be few on working holiday visas, tourists could have come home long ago. Most people on my flight from the US were long term residents or business people. May already split their time between US and Oz and had pre-booked tickets early in the year. In addition other passengers I spoke with were Australians who had been resident in the US and working and due to CV were now able to work remote so were choosing to come to Oz to sit it out. As @sudoer pointed out seats are freely available daily from the US as long as you have money in your pocket.

 

[nancypants]

In Darwin today and saw the plane ready to head off to Chennai. I believe this one is returning to Canberra instead of Darwin though

 

[AIRwin]

I believe this one is returning to Canberra instead of Darwin though

Looks like ZNF will be turning around in MAA and heading back to DRW as QF106...

 

[henrus]

I don't know what there would be to carry but I wonder if these flights are carrying freight?

 

[Melburnian1]

In the case of this week's DFAT operations where QF110 ran twice in three days, you'd hope any no show seats on the first departure were sellable on the second departure (subject to physical distancing on the seat map)

IIRC (see my cancellatins/delays QF thread), the second one was cancelled.

 

[sudoer]

IIRC (see my cancellatins/delays QF thread), the second one was cancelled.

FR24 has flight data for both?

 

[Melburnian1]

I don't know what there would be to carry but I wonder if these flights are carrying freight?

There's a lot of freight offering, because freighter services have been reported in the media as constantly being full.

Pre-COVID-19, almost all passenger flights into and out of Oz carried freight and many Australia Post mail. So the dramatic reduction in operators and number of flights to/from Oz causes headaches for those in logistics. The cost of international air freight has apparently risen quite a lot but many high value consignments still ideally are carried by air, although by tonnage, sea freight remains overwhelming domination.

And then there's the forthcoming vaccine shipments but these will presumably come on air freighters not passenger flights.

Post automatically merged: Feb 5, 2021

FR24 has flight data for both?

View attachment 240083

OK, sorry, my mistake.

 

[yld200]

I'm in the UK and have registered with DFAT to get back home. I've been emailed twice for DFAT flights now and both times, economy seats are sold out within minutes.

The first flights we were offered were for Feb 16 and 18. Email was received at 9.23am GMT and seats were gone by 9.30 GMT.

Email for the second batch of flights on March 7 & 9 came through on Monday at 9.07 GMT, with only Y+ and J available by 9.27 GMT. We didn't book the at the time because we had booked some SQ flights into Melb for later in March (which are an unknown).

A colleague in London was sent an invitation offer to book flights on a DFAT flight (I think it was this week but not sure). We didn't get that one.

 

[henrus]

I'm in the UK and have registered with DFAT to get back home. I've been emailed twice for DFAT flights now and both times, economy seats are sold out within minutes.

Genuinely curious if you could share a bit more of your situation... how long have you been trying, what options have you looked at, how many times bumped (if any)?

 

[yld200]

Genuinely curious if you could share a bit more of your situation... how long have you been trying, what options have you looked at, how many times bumped (if any)?

I've been watching and monitoring flights since December and the only hard booking I made was on SQ to Melbourne for March 25. I also waitlisted some flights to ADL on SQ but no luck with any of those.

We didn't commit to any earlier flights because we had a child in December and also have a dog with us which complicated our planning while waiting for citizenship and the import regulations for pets into AU. Anyways, I've been watching flights in March Daily since late December and we are desperately trying to get back home in late March or early April.