VA Cancellations, Delays growing?

[Harrison_133]

Your data is from 15 Jan... What happened 1-15 Jan?

Only 1 week fit in the screenshot, but again, 883 has only been cancelled once so far in January.

 

[Saab34]

Just be mindful mid to late next month if flying to/from MEL and SYD from anywhere and everywhere. I was trying to work out why flights are so damn expensive and so many are sold out, mid to late next month, then realised Taylor Swift is in town.

Probably won’t be accomodated as easily if a cancellation. Stick to Rex!

Standby for the cancelled flight and missed concert stories!

 

[elanshin]

Just be mindful mid to late next month if flying to/from MEL and SYD from anywhere and everywhere. I was trying to work out why flights are so damn expensive and so many are sold out, mid to late next month, then realised Taylor Swift is in town.

Probably won’t be accomodated as easily if a cancellation. Stick to Rex!

Standby for the cancelled flight and missed concert stories!

At least with east coast, you have option of being driving over and being tired. I've done that once in the past as SYD was hammered by massive winds. It's not fun, but at least its possible. Plenty of friends have also done it for conventions doing non stop 5 driver rotation overnight after delays and cancellations.

 

[openseat]

Just be mindful mid to late next month if flying to/from MEL and SYD from anywhere and everywhere. I was trying to work out why flights are so damn expensive and so many are sold out, mid to late next month, then realised Taylor Swift is in town.

Probably won’t be accomodated as easily if a cancellation. Stick to Rex!

Standby for the cancelled flight and missed concert stories!

Swift-flation

 

[kyle]

I'm just hoping my VA flights to and from MEL-OOL are ok this weekend with the cyclone activity further north.

 

[Saab34]

They don’t have any aircraft bases north of BNE so shouldn’t be an issue.

Alliance is a different matter who have bases up the coast.

It’s the rain event in the 7 days after this cyclone that I’d be concerned about and the delays caused by that.

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

I'm just hoping my VA flights to and from MEL-OOL are ok this weekend with the cyclone activity further north.

Current forecast for Brisbane and Gold Coast this weekend is 0-30mm of rain per day. Further north than that is a different matter. As @Saab34 said, no VA bases north of BNE would hopefully mean they're minimally affected.

 

[kyle]

Flew OOL-MEL yesterday. Think an earlier flight from BNE-MEL was already delayed for an hour and our afternoon flight which I initially thought would be affected by the weather and didn't, turned out having an engineering issue which delayed it a bit more and fortunately the plane was able to take off, albeit just under two hours later.

 

[kyle]

So I flew MEL-OOL again on Saturday. First flight of the day. Full flight, so they started boarding about 5 minutes before the scheduled boarding time and we're on our way pretty much on time.

But then on the way back, flew the 14:55. Kept checking the plane's movements throughout the day and even arrived at OOL on time. And we still departed 30 mins late. And the reason? On the arriving flight, after most of the pax have disembarked, it took another 10-15 mins before a couple of old disabled pax came out, one in a wheelchair and the other, possibly the wife, was barely able to walk. And then on departure, very similar. Another couple requiring assistance to board. So that again delayed the departure.

So not sure how much more VA could do to reduce these delays.

 

[PERLHR]

So I flew MEL-OOL again on Saturday. First flight of the day. Full flight, so they started boarding about 5 minutes before the scheduled boarding time and we're on our way pretty much on time.

But then on the way back, flew the 14:55. Kept checking the plane's movements throughout the day and even arrived at OOL on time. And we still departed 30 mins late. And the reason? On the arriving flight, after most of the pax have disembarked, it took another 10-15 mins before a couple of old disabled pax came out, one in a wheelchair and the other, possibly the wife, was barely able to walk. And then on departure, very similar. Another couple requiring assistance to board. So that again delayed the departure.

So not sure how much more VA could do to reduce these delays.

Just sounds like a normal day when in the hands of the handling agents I guess. OOL can be busy at times for special requests services.

 

[Saab34]

First on, last off generally. Sucks when I got boxed in once with two older folks requiring assistance next to me, which meant I became last off.

 

[bcworld]

I flew ZQN-MEL on Friday. Total cluster on VA's behalf! The inbound flight left MEL on time and was due to arrive in ZQN early. However more than half way to ZQN it turned around and went back to MEL. More than an hour later there was no status update on the VA app for ZQN-MEL, the screens at ZQN stated 'On Time' and the check in machine 'said' nothing. Having dropped bags, finally the app updated to show a 4+ hour delay! Still the screens at ZQN listed on time...there were no announcements and people were confused. Bad planning on my part but we had to be back in Melbourne by midday Saturday for an event...so I was considering booking some insurance seats on the late JQ ZQN-MEL flight. I went to priority check in to enquire about how we might get our bags back...contract agent had no ideas. The only thing he did do was state the reason for the diversion back to MEL was crewmember illness. Turns out that was a lie. When we finally boarded (5 hours late), cabin crew said the reason was that the flight or crew did not have the correct paperwork signed and filed to continue to NZ...so they had to return to MEL.

5 hour airline caused delay with zero announcements or offer of e.g. F&B vouchers for pax...both of which I believe should happen according to their ground service manual.

 

[TheInsider]

I flew ZQN-MEL on Friday. Total cluster on VA's behalf! The inbound flight left MEL on time and was due to arrive in ZQN early. However more than half way to ZQN it turned around and went back to MEL.

The reason was the First Officer wasn't signed off to land in ZQN, well that's the rumour.

How it got to that point where they actually took off, who knows.

 

[bcworld]

The reason was the First Officer wasn't signed off to land in ZQN, well that's the rumour.

How it got to that point where they actually took off, who knows.

That's pretty much what I thought I heard. The chap sitting next to us was pretty incandescent about the whole situation! I think he was probably missing his onward connection on QR that night. The cabin manager spent a lot of time giving him a detailed explanation of the events but I just couldn't quite tune in to the finer details.

 

[Must...Fly!]

The reason was the First Officer wasn't signed off to land in ZQN, well that's the rumour.

How it got to that point where they actually took off, who knows.

That was the most obvious possibility that crossed my mind. If it was crew illness you'd just continue and fly back empty if it was cabin crew for example. Then I thought surely not, must be some other reason. Quite something if it turns out to be the case.

 

[bcworld]

Informative article here from QF on what's required to fly into ZQN:

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/roo-tales/having-the-right-stuff-to-fly-into-queenstown/

He’s one of a select group of pilots who are licenced to land a passenger jet at Queenstown (or to use its airport code, ZQN).

The terrain surrounding the airport creates its own unique weather patterns which may be great for skiers, but poses some challenges for large passenger aircraft.

Not only do pilots landing in Queenstown need to undergo specialised simulator training, but they must execute a successful approach and landing under the watchful eye of a training captain.

 

[PERLHR]

That's pretty much what I thought I heard. The chap sitting next to us was pretty incandescent about the whole situation! I think he was probably missing his onward connection on QR that night. The cabin manager spent a lot of time giving him a detailed explanation of the events but I just couldn't quite tune in to the finer details.

And sometimes on these forums we worry about professionalism and decision making of Batik and the Lion group!! Seriously!! hope VA hold some accountability to this mess.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Again, if it's true then I'm surprised the F/O didn't pick it up themselves. Perhaps they have done the special sim work for ZQN but currency expired the day before or something, and no one, including themselves, realised until it was way too late?

Not saying it excuses it as the systems should be in place to pick all of this up, but I'm sure someone on this forum has driven with a technically expired driving license they forgot to renew, for example.

I'm thinking really outside the box here. What if it's something weird like the systems exist, but the competencies in training & crewing system at VA is designed to expire at 23:59:59 UTC. The flight leaves at 23:45 UTC. No flags come up as a result, but as the flight is technically operating the next day (as AEDT is +11) the pilot is now not current and cannot operate to ZQN.

 

[MooTime]

Again, if it's true then I'm surprised the F/O didn't pick it up themselves. Perhaps they have done the special sim work for ZQN but currency expired the day before or something, and no one, including themselves, realised until it was way too late?

Not saying it excuses it as the systems should be in place to pick all of this up, but I'm sure someone on this forum has driven with a technically expired driving license they forgot to renew, for example.

I'm thinking really outside the box here. What if it's something weird like the systems exist, but the competencies in training & crewing system at VA is designed to expire at 23:59:59 UTC. The flight leaves at 23:45 UTC. No flags come up as a result, but as the flight is technically operating the next day (as AEDT is +11) the pilot is now not current and cannot operate to ZQN.

You'd think or hope that the licence would be like the passport, must have certain amount of days left before travelling etc, but no doubt isn't and we're barking up the wrong tree.

 

[bcworld]

I'm thinking really outside the box here. What if it's something weird like the systems exist, but the competencies in training & crewing system at VA is designed to expire at 23:59:59 UTC. The flight leaves at 23:45 UTC. No flags come up as a result, but as the flight is technically operating the next day (as AEDT is +11) the pilot is now not current and cannot operate to ZQN.

Most organisations where staff require certifications will have some kind of specialised software to manage license and certification expiry. There would also be notifications and lead time prior to actual expiry. But I know airlines can be antiquated...maybe they're just using Excel!