Sydney Airport storm chaos

[Skyring]

skyring - I wouldn't feel too bad about the sydney taxi drivers. Because of the shortage and qantas picking up the bill they did very nicely. The taxi I made it into was dropping off at north ryde, wahroonga, castle hill and kellyville. The total fare would have been north of $500

Mmmm. I was thinking of those drivers with assigned passengers aboard QF32, rather than the general run of cabbies working off the rank. If a flight is delayed and I'm waiting in the arrivals hall with a nameboard, I charge the passenger for the waiting time. If it's a long time, it's a big bill. If the passenger doesn't show at all, I don't get paid and I've wasted all that time. I'm not on salary or retainer - my income comes entirely from my passengers.

There would have been Silver Service or limo drivers waiting for passengers off QF32, and they would have waited several fruitless hours, at the same time as the regular cabbies were making a bundle from Qantas vouchers.

 

[IMOA]

I'd say that once it became apparent that QF32 wasn't arriving the fact that there were a few thousand stranded passengers and around 30 cabs per hour arriving at the rank should have made the decision pretty easy all round. The cab I was in was a limo, I suspect he had been waiting for a pre assigned (there were a lot of them waiting there), managed to get in contact and then filled the car with what he could find.

 

[JohnK]

I feel sorry for any one on QF32 that was inconvenienced. As far as I am concerned having to spend that many hours on a flight and then to wait in the aircraft overnight whilst on the ground is an exceptional circumstance. The aircraft should have been allowed to return to SYD, after refuelling in CBR, and land after the curfew. I am almost certain that no one on the flight path would have minded this exception.

I was on QF555 from BNE-SYD on Friday night. It was already re-scheduled earlier in the day to depart 10 minutes later and then the incoming aircraft was around 20 minutes late and finally after rushing to board everyone we waited another 30 minutes to refuel just in case we had to divert. They knew they had to refuel well before we started boarding. Why do passengers have to be on the aircraft during refuelliing? Is there some statistic keeping track of how quickly the aircraft is boarded. The same thing happened on a recent SIN-MEL flight where we boarded and then waited an extra hour for refuelling as there was possibility of fog in MEL. Why board the passengers in the first place when you know there will be a lengthy delay? At least they switched on the IFE while we were waiting.