Qantas to operate evacuation flights from Lebanon via Cyprus to Sydney

[kangarooflyer88]

VH-ZNC is operating Ausy1528 SYD direct to LCA with an expected flight time of 17.23

Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

View flight ASY1258 from Sydney to Larnaca on Flightradar24

www.flightradar24.com

One has to wonder here what the logistics of this trip is? The press release indicated that this flight is scheduled to depart Larnaca in the evening. Well if they're flying now and arriving at around 4:30 PM local time, how will they be able to fly out the same day? I should think crew will need rest especially after flying that mammoth 17+ hour leg. Presumably all the same crew rest regulations apply for repatriation flights? Now maybe they did rest in the cabin rest area between portions of the flight and are thus legal to fly the leg back. But I always thought there was a requirement somewhere where they must get 24 hours of R&R on the ground before resuming. Alternatively, I suppose they could have flown pilot and crew to Cyprus in advance of this mission.

The other question too will be the logistics of things like catering. For instance, did they cater out of Sydney? Alternatively, if they catered out of Cyprus it could make for an interesting trip report. Then again, is anyone on this forum fortunate enough to score a ticket on this flight?

-RooFlyer88

 

[markis10]

I would expect the off duty crew would have access to the j cabin and that catering maybe loaded in Syd. QF asked for volunteers and I don’t suspect they had issues filling spots, kudos to the crews that put their hand up.

In terms of rest, there are a number of Eba’s in place for cabin crew that vary considerably. Long haul crew can be new to the job and have short turnarounds. Some of the cabin crew that did an awesome job recently (albeit with a load of 50 pax) on QF26 arriving at 2000 a few weeks back were operating QF1 the next day, going from A330 equipments to A380.

 

[craney]

Doesn't the press release on the first page of the thread say that Qantas is providing the flight to the government at no cost (as well as being free for passengers)?

"The national carrier will operate these assisted-departure flights free of charge for the Australian Government, with no cost to those travelling on the flight."

...which makes the previous 8 pages of whinging and griping about spending tax dollars evacuating citizens and permanent residents from a war zone a bit redundant.

Hat-tip to Qantas for going out of their way to help.

 

[jase05]

Doesn't the press release on the first page of the thread say that Qantas is providing the flight to the government at no cost (as well as being free for passengers)?

"The national carrier will operate these assisted-departure flights free of charge for the Australian Government, with no cost to those travelling on the flight."

...which makes the previous 8 pages of whinging and griping about spending tax dollars evacuating citizens and permanent residents from a war zone a bit redundant.

Hat-tip to Qantas for going out of their way to help.

Yes, no problem with what QF are doing and hats off to them.
There is no such thing as a free lunch though and I’d fully expect QF to claw the cost back somehow and I wouldn’t have an issue with that

 

[DejaBrew]

There is no such thing as a free lunch though and I’d fully expect QF to claw the cost back somehow and I wouldn’t have an issue with that

Most likely during the next DSC promotion period…

 

[jase05]

Most likely during the next DSC promotion period…

Easier just to add a $5 levy to every ticket sold, the punters wouldn’t even notice

 

[justinbrett]

Doesn't the press release on the first page of the thread say that Qantas is providing the flight to the government at no cost (as well as being free for passengers)?

"The national carrier will operate these assisted-departure flights free of charge for the Australian Government, with no cost to those travelling on the flight."

...which makes the previous 8 pages of whinging and griping about spending tax dollars evacuating citizens and permanent residents from a war zone a bit redundant.

Hat-tip to Qantas for going out of their way to help.

There’s also the cost of the “military” flights out of BEY (which looks like HiFly charters) and the cost of deploying military and other officials to operate the evacuation centre. So even if QF are free (I imagine the government is covering the fuel and airport fees) there’s still a cost.

 

[Daver6]

Doesn't the press release on the first page of the thread say that Qantas is providing the flight to the government at no cost (as well as being free for passengers)?

"The national carrier will operate these assisted-departure flights free of charge for the Australian Government, with no cost to those travelling on the flight."

...which makes the previous 8 pages of whinging and griping about spending tax dollars evacuating citizens and permanent residents from a war zone a bit redundant.

Hat-tip to Qantas for going out of their way to help.

I'm sure QF shareholders are thrilled about this.

 

[markis10]

Qatar appear to be bringing the first group home, Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

 

[p--and--t]

I'm sure QF shareholders are thrilled about this.

Hard to tell if that's a statement or sarcasm, regardless I'm sure many are.

Fairly sure my super fund would have some shares in QF, & I fully support this activity and thank the all the volunteer staff for their efforts on this and countless other previous occasions where QF and their staff have willingly supported the gov requests for assistance in a time of urgent need.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I suppose one of these challenges with these repatriation flights is the logistics of simply routing these flights back given they’ll be near multiple conflict zones with Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and other unstable countries in the region. No doubt they’ve already had to make diversions around some of these areas but one has to wonder how much leeway they have left given the route is coming close to the maximum flight time these birds can operate

"The national carrier will operate these assisted-departure flights free of charge for the Australian Government, with no cost to those travelling on the flight."

...which makes the previous 8 pages of whinging and griping about spending tax dollars evacuating citizens and permanent residents from a war zone a bit redundant.

There’s certainly some ambiguity in that statement. Qantas is operating it free of charge maybe to passengers but they’ll bill the government for the costs to operate. Or maybe there is no cost being billed to the government to operate the flight but Qantas bills the government a passenger movement fee of $10,000 per passenger. Again we really don’t know here.

But that does make me wonder how much one of these flights does cost to operate? Obviously there is fuel and mileage (or is that kilometrage?) on the odometer, catering costs, crew labour costs, fees to departing and land and Sydney and Larnaca airports, etc. No doubt we’re probably looking into the hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost, easily.

Hat-tip to Qantas for going out of their way to help.

If they did this free of charge, not only was it the right thing to do ethically but I’d argue from a business standpoint it makes a lot of sense. Even if they spend one million dollars on these flights, how much free advertising will get they get in the media? Now look, I don’t work in marketing or sales, but I reckon if you want to put an ad on a prime time slot on Channel 7, the ABC, Fox News Australia, it ain’t gonna be cheap. And people are gonna ignore the ad anyways because it’s all noise during an ad break with most people going to put on the kettle when the ad break runs. But here smack dab in the middle of a news program you get a wonderful marketing opportunity for a feel good story that people may listen to.

 

[Seat0B]

Because you can't just pick and choose which legally-enshrined rights you wish to recognise for Australian Citizens (or non-citizens with PR and a valid Resident Return Visa).

Which was the thing that upset me the most about the way we refused exit and entry to Australian citizens in the COVID era. Prior to that shameful period I would have totally (and naively it seems) agreed with you.

 

[Saab34]

Qatar appear to be bringing the first group home, Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

This one seemed to have slipped under the radar.

I thought it was just an extra chartered DOH-SYD leg feeding off its Cyprus flights, but it does appear that they charted a whole 777 DOH-LCA-DOH-SYD.

I guess it helps being a large carrier in the local region, with crews likely already on standby for a given fleet, pulling a 777 away to operate wouldn’t have impacted the whole operation much at all. QF pulling a 787 out has obviously caused considerable disruption.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

This one seemed to have slipped under the radar.

I thought it was just an extra chartered DOH-SYD leg feeding off its Cyprus flights, but it does appear that they charted a whole 777 DOH-LCA-DOH-SYD.

It would be interesting to see if Qatar decided to arrange these flights free of charge like Qantas allegedly did. I could see a lot of benefit of them doing so, rebuilding the good will they’ll need to get approval for their Virgin investment, wet leading off aircraft to Virgin to operate service to Doha, and to pave over the mess caused by the intrusive exams some Aussie women faced flying Qatar back to Australia not too long ago

 

[DejaBrew]

Which was the thing that upset me the most about the way we refused exit and entry to Australian citizens in the COVID era.

I completely agree with you on this. The total disregard for the rights of Australian citizens during that period was lamentable to say the least.

 

[Saab34]

I don’t think the government takes any QR goodwill into account, especially considering the amount of flights it operated here during lockdowns with minimal/restricted loads, costing itself huge losses.

Looks like they are ferrying back the empty 777 from Sydney almost immediately. I assume operating Pilots paxed over on the inbound, is a very odd x4 seats only occupied in the J cabin on the way over, probably the tech crew. Both cabins going back empty so looks like inbound crew are in Sydney for the night.

 

[sudoer]

Why not have the flights open to open to people who have been in Australia in the last 5-10 years;

In some ways, permanent residency has provisions like this already built in.

You can stay in Australia indefinitely once you have PR, however the initial visa with travel facility only lasts 5 years (can come and go freely)

After this, if you leave Australia and wish to return as a permanent resident, you'd apply for a Resident Return Visa (subclass 155) which lasts another 5 years.

To get that RRV approved, you must have been in Australia for 2 of the past 5 years or have compelling reasons why you haven't, or be able to demonstrate other substantial ties.

If someone hasn't been in Australia for 10+ years but holds permanent residency, I think they would have trouble getting the RRV (or at least the processing time would take significantly longer than a regular renewal) needed to enter the country as a permanent resident, and that might rule them ineligible for the repat flights.

 

[justinbrett]

There’s certainly some ambiguity in that statement. Qantas is operating it free of charge maybe to passengers but they’ll bill the government for the costs to operate. Or maybe there is no cost being billed to the government to operate the flight but Qantas bills the government a passenger movement fee of $10,000 per passenger. Again we really don’t know here.

The government will be picking up the direct costs (fuel, catering, airport fees etc). They will be counted as a state aircraft (flying with ASY callsigns, which is ADF).

This is the same arrangement with HiFly in the past for over a decade running flights to Al Minhad, near Dubai, (but that was via another contractor - Adagold).

It doesn't sound like QF is charging any further costs to the government.

Interesting flight number…..

Not QF 6xx_

Not interesting. It's running as a state aircraft using ADF callsigns, likely for insurance purposes.

 

[prozac]

Which was the thing that upset me the most about the way we refused exit and entry to Australian citizens in the COVID era. Prior to that shameful period I would have totally (and naively it seems) agreed with you.

MsProzac was caught o/s during covid and could not return. In the end she even lost her return flight to use when things opened up again. Did I mention FlightCentre were a pack of proverbial to deal with. Money down the drain, lost completely. No help from the government to get her and thousands like her home, no fault of their own. They did not choose to stay in a war zone until it was too late, they were simply locked out of their country by the government and forgotten about.

 

[downgraded]

MsProzac was caught o/s during covid and could not return. In the end she even lost her return flight to use when things opened up again. Did I mention FlightCentre were a pack of proverbial to deal with. Money down the drain, lost completely. No help from the government to get her and thousands like her home, no fault of their own. They did not choose to stay in a war zone until it was too late, they were simply locked out of their country by the government and forgotten about.

I do recall similar "come home now" rhetoric before the borders were shut.