Qantas, Virgin, Qatar called to assist with Israel repatriation flights

[kpc]

QF10 is delayed until 2200 tonight so I presume that aircraft will do a LHR-TLV-LHR rotation. This might mean the aircraft turns around on Saturday night in PER to return to LHR cancelling the QF10/QF9 domestic legs.

That's a 10 hour delay for the Qf10 passengers, now arriving at 945pm, instead of 1155am, in Perth....won't be very nice for ongoing connections from Perth and some may need to stay in Perth overnight which I assume QF will have to pay the hotel costs

 

[Lynda2475]

That's a 10 hour delay for the Qf10 passengers, now arriving at 945pm, instead of 1155am, in Perth....won't be very nice for ongoing connections from Perth and some may need to stay in Perth overnight which I assume QF will have to have to pay the hotel costs

I am sure they will on-bill the government for the cost of accommodating such passengers.

 

[milehighclub]

I am sure they will on-bill the government for the cost of accommodating such passengers.

Qantas is covering all the costs

 

[Quickstatus]

I am sure they will on-bill the government for the cost of accommodating such passengers.

Nothing wrong with the Guvment covering these costs

 

[Lynda2475]

Nothing wrong with the Guvment covering these costs

Never said there was.

If they choose to request commercial aviation assistance then they should pay for it, otherwise they need to use military transports - either way the tax payer pays.

 

[kpc]

Qantas is covering all the costs

Relatively small costs for Qf, I guess, for good PR and rebuilding its image which has taken a battering in recent times

 

[jase05]

Qantas is covering all the costs

I’m sure QF will recuperate the cost somehow. It will end up being tax payer funded

 

[jrfsp]

That's a 10 hour delay for the Qf10 passengers, now arriving at 945pm, instead of 1155am, in Perth....won't be very nice for ongoing connections from Perth and some may need to stay in Perth overnight which I assume QF will have to pay the hotel costs

Plus EU compensation costs

 

[dairyfloss]

Plus EU compensation costs

They won't put anyone out (e.g. accommodation and alternate flights would be arranged), but I wonder if QF would be able to claim they have limited further obligation to compensate here (even under EU261), as a result of the changes/delays being due to matters qualifying as extraordinary circumstances? EU261 does allow for this, but might suggest it is QF's choice to disrupt the services, and so that wouldn't apply. Just a thought, anyway...

 

[RooFlyer]

Relatively small costs for Qf, I guess, for good PR and rebuilding its image which has taken a battering in recent times

But the potential for significant knock on effects to international scheduling and then domestic connections, where it won’t necessarily get the credit it deserves for the international repatriation reason.

 

[justinbrett]

Yes, loaded now in FR24 also as ASY1168 departing London at 7am, arriving in Tel Aviv at 1330 local time. VH-ZNN operating the leg.

Interesting flight number using RAAF call sign.

I assume they would have a few pilots on board, probably very senior and experienced ones with RAAF background?

ASY callsign means it’s a military charter (whether or not money has changed hands). There is no requirement for any of the crew to be military but it does mean the RAAF have overall control of the aircraft and are responsible for diplomatic clearances (required for every country it overflies as well as Israel and UK). Use of ASY by civilian airliners is not that unusual - Adagold / Hifly flew their A340 using ASY for years.

As to why they’ve done it this way, unsure. I’d hazard a guess it might relate to insurance, QFA would be operating outside of their policy if anything were to happen so the government is taking full responsibility. It also opens the door for them to divert to nearby military bases should the need arise. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a RAAF escort/stager aircraft.

 

[dylarr]

I assume they would have a few pilots on board, probably very senior and experienced ones with RAAF background?

There was a behind the scenes piece in the Daily Telegraph today that stated there will be 3 senior captains onboard.

It will be carrying enough fuel to do the round trip to TLV and back to LHR.

As well as the cabin crew, also onboard are specialist ground crew to board pax, medical personal and engineers.

An A380 service will operate to SYD via SIN on Tuesday to bring citizens back to Australia from LHR. Didn't mention if this would be on the existing QF2 service or whether another flight will be operating this.

Over 900 crew put their hands up to operate the flights.

The LHR-TLV sector operating under the RAAF callsign is live on FR24: Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

 

[pauly7]

Over 900 crew put their hands up to operate the flights.

Amazing. Really heart warming!

 

[justinbrett]

The Canadians have a RCAF CC-150 (A310) flying from ATH-TLV arriving about an hour before ASY.

NZ has charted EY.

 

[Lynda2475]

They won't put anyone out (e.g. accommodation and alternate flights would be arranged), but I wonder if QF would be able to claim they have limited further obligation to compensate here (even under EU261), as a result of the changes/delays being due to matters qualifying as extraordinary circumstances? EU261 does allow for this, but might suggest it is QF's choice to disrupt the services, and so that wouldn't apply. Just a thought, anyway...

Most connecting from PER will be going to MEL which doesnt have a curfew, so imagine it will only be a subset connecting to those cities that do have a curfew like SYD that will need to be put up in Perth.

 

[dairyfloss]

Most connecting from PER will be going to MEL which doesnt have a curfew, so imagine it will only be a subset connecting to those cities that do have a curfew like SYD that will need to be put up in Perth.

The delay is the issue; not the ability to connect

 

[Lynda2475]

The delay is the issue; not the ability to connect

The delay causing missed connections is what will add even more costs.

Late arrival into PER for those connecting into MEL wont see them stuck in PER over night, as QF can operate the domestic leg a little later due to no curfew.

Whereas they may have to pay for accommodation for those who miss their connections to cities with curfews like SYD and cant fly onward until the next morning; unless they make capacity on the midnight red eye.

 

[jrfsp]

The delay causing missed connections is what will add costs.

Late arrival into PER for those connecting into MEL wont see them stuck in PER over night, as QF can operate the domestic leg a little later due to no curfew.

Whereas they may have to pay for accomodation for those who miss their connections to cities with curfews and cant fly onward until the next morning; unless they make capacity on the midnight red eye.

Compensation for £520 per pax gets expensive pretty quickly

 

[Lynda2475]

Compensation for £520 per pax gets expensive pretty quickly

Sure but that is already unavoidable due to the need to use the plane for the evacuation flight.

The discussion upthread was about additional costs above the EU legislated compensation.

If there is any capacity on QF2 QF could move anyone who was connecting from PER through to SYD to QF2 and avoid any accommodation costs in PER.

 

[exLXCXFF]

I have just looked at the altitude/speed profile of VH-ZNN into TLV. Average sue speed was around 460 knots from LHR just to before TLV, then during descent the air speed seems to have jumped up to 738 knots with a steep descent. I guess they wanted to come down very steeply and very fast.

I guess we would normally not see this?

@jb747 - any insights?