Virgin Australia Delays/Cancellations

[Melburnian1]

Passengers on VA321 (1000 MEL - BNE, Sunday 15 October 2017, B738 VH-VUG) did not become airborne until 1323 hours. Arrival to a wet BNE is suggested as 1442 hours, 212 minutes tardy.

UPDATE: VH-VUG is subsequently operating the 1205 hours from BNE down to SYd, VA946 that took off at 1532. It should be at its destination gate at 1756, 196 minutes behind the timetable.

VA1882 (F100 VH-FNC, the 1250 hours ZNE down to PER that was airborne at 1328) is predicted to arrive at 1511, 31 late.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Monday 16 October, VA2910 from GLT to BNE (F100 VH-XWO) should arrive at 1813, 33 minutes late.

 

[Melburnian1]

VA239 (1735 hours MEL - ADL that took off at 1829 on Wednesday 18 October with B738 VH-VBZ) should pull in to its allocated gate at roughly 1913, 43 minutes late.

 

[AviatorInsight]

VA239 (1735 hours MEL - ADL that took off at 1829 on Wednesday 18 October with B738 VH-VBZ) should pull in to its allocated gate at roughly 1913, 43 minutes late.

Yeah, sorry to any pax affected. On the 4th sector in VBZ for the day from BNE-SYD we waited 45mins at the holding point in the sequence to depart due to the visibility dropping from the rain.

Block time ended up being 2:10. We arrived into SYD at 1530 right on departure time for the next flight to MEL. Unfortunately, once you’re late it’s incredibly hard to make up time.

 

[Mr Pumblechook]

Yeah, sorry to any pax affected. On the 4th sector in VBZ for the day from BNE-SYD we waited 45mins at the holding point in the sequence to depart due to the visibility dropping from the rain.

Yes it was terrible timing - the visibility decreased just when there were 10 aircraft waiting at the holding points and it took a while to increase the spacing between arrivals to allow for any departures at all. Time from pushback to take-off was 40-50 minutes for most of the affected flights, which is certainly far from ideal.

 

[Melburnian1]

AviatorInsight and Mr Pumblechook, great on the spot reports. Those of us who were not at BNE (the vast majority of AFF members) would never have known of low visibility as the public BOM half hourly reports (i.e. not delving into the more technical reports of interest to aviation) indicated only a little rain at Brisbane Airport this afternoon.

AviatorInsight, creditably, you were on time for the first three sectors if you commenced the day in Sydney on VA505 at about 0700 so a score of 75 per cent is well above a pass!

I was going to say that the aircraft was intensively used today with seven sectors operated but according to FR24, on Thursday 19 October it is doing three return MEL - CBRs, a MEL - MQL return (I've been on one of those flights fairly recently, but only one way as one leg was on V/Line rail and coach: V/Line carries more passengers to Mildura daily than VA) and a MEL - SYD single trip, making a total of nine sectors. These repeated short sectors must impose stress on airframes.

With both QF and VA, the roster intensity for individual aircraft seem to vary quite a bit and it isn't all that unusual for some 'frames' not to be used terribly intensively on Mondays to Wednesdays and Saturdays as well, and perhaps Sunday mornings.

In particular, some aircraft have the luxury of a break around lunchtime (absolute non peak hour) that allows time to be caught up if there were morning delays.

VA seem to be good at (failures excepted) rostering the same aircraft for multiple consecutive days for the same flights. I've seen that happen for up to five or six days which is quite impressive.

 

[Melburnian1]

Writing further about VH-VBZ that was mentioned above in AviatorInsight's usual interesting post(s), on Thursday 19 October it is indeed on VA1615, the mid morning 1020 hours only use of a larger aircarft by any operator from MEL to MQL. It took off at 1120: arrival is predicted at 1215 hours, 50 minutes tardy.

VA264 (B738 VH-VUQ, the scheduled 1105 hours from CBR down to MEL that took off at 1150) should pull in to its designated arrival gate at about 1256. 41 late.

The 0510 hours shockingly early VA1504 from CNS to SYD has had a very bad start to its day with takeoff at 1104 for B738 VH-YWA. Arrival should be at 1446, 336 minutes tardy. This may be delaying VA830, the scheduled mid morning 1000 hours from SYD down to MEL.

 

[Melburnian1]

In further on 19 October, VA284 from CBR down to MEL should arrive at 2023 hours, 43 late with B738 VH-VBZ, which has featured multiple times on this page, something close to a record in these notations of delays and cancellations. (Thanks AviatorInsight!)

The late afternoon VA746 (scheduled 1655 hours from OOL down to MEL, B738 VH-VUR was airborne at 1852. Arrival should be at about 2153 tonight, 93 minutes behind the timetable.

 

[Melburnian1]

The late evening of Friday 20 October sees VA750 (1850 hours OOL - MEL that was airborne at 2033 with B738 VH-YFJ) likely to arrive 73 minutes behind schedule at 2333 hours.

VA383 from BNE to TSV, the 1950 hours that was airborne at 2219 (B738 VH-VUP) should arrive at approximately 2259, 64 minutes late.

 

[Melburnian1]

VA811 (Saturday 21 October 0700 hours MEL - SYD that took off at 0735, about 20 minutes late with B738 VH-VUU) should pull in to its allocated airport gate at about 0857, 32 minutes tardy.

 

[Melburnian1]

Monday 23 October sees VA850 (mid afternoon 1500 hours SYD down to MEL, B738 VH-YFH) not having become airborne until 1705 hours. Arrival should be at 1820 early this evening, 105 minutes late.

VA1535 (1635 hours from HBA up to SYD that was in the sky at 1750 with B738 VH-YFJ) should arrive at 1924 hours, 59 minutes late.

 

[Melburnian1]

VA1615, the Wednesday 25 October 2017 MEL - MQL (B738 VH-VBY) was airborne at 1059 so arrival is expected 35 minutes late at 1200 'high noon.'

 

[Melburnian1]

Presumably due to storms on Thursday 26 October 2017, VA580 (1610 hours ADL - CBR that was in the sky only a few minutes late at 1831, B738 VH-YFE) was held above the Snowy Mountains for many minutes but is now proceeding towards its destination with arrival suggested 45 minutes tardy at 1900 hours.

B738 VH-VUQ on the PER - CBR VA586 and should be in at 1909 hours, 44 minutes late.

Earlier, VA279, the 1655 hours late afternoon MEL - CBR was also about 45 minutes tardy.

 

[Melburnian1]

In further on 26 October 2017, the bad weather in CBR sees VA284 (1830 hours early evening CBR down to MEL, B738 VH-VBZ) not having become airborne until 1957. Arrival is shortly at 2100, 80 minutes late. A QF flight is slightly more delayed.

VA342 (1655 hours late afternoon BNE down to MEL that departed at 1759, B738 VH-YFQ) should pull in to its MEL arrival gate at roughly 2127 hours, 67 minutes late.

VH-VUK on northbound VA289 from MEL up to CBR, the 1905 hours, took off at 205. Arrival should be at around the 2153 mark, 103 minutes late.

 

[Melburnian1]

VA506 (0755 hours Friday 27 October OOL down to SYD, B738 VH-VUT) was airborne at 0831; arrival should be at around 1058, 33 late.

 

[Melburnian1]

VA863, the Sunday 29 October 1630 hours MEL up to SYD has been cancelled.

 

[Quickstatus]

A friend a 2 consecutive VA flights cancelled. He was sent an SMS at 0100 for his 0700 flight and 1200hrs for his 1630 flight. He was told ATC were limiting flights due to weather.
Original flights:27Oct VA808 and return 29Oct17 VA863
SYD-MEL return
He was changed to 0900 VA824 and on return the 1745 VA873

This is what I told him:

“Some intel:
27Oct The aircraft that was supposed to operate the cancelled 0700 VA808 SYD -MEL (VH-VUO) actually operated VA812 SYD-MEL at 0730!!

29Oct The aircraft that was supposed to operate the cancelled 1630 VA863 MEL-SYD (VH-YIG) actually operated VA751 MEL-OOL at 1615

This suggests that the aircraft were not cancelled due to ATC or mechanical issues. Did the airline take some seats out of those routes because of low demand. Maybe low demand and not enough aircraft on the day to operate all scheduled flights?

Both aircraft were already in position at each respective airports so the cancellation was not due to late aircraft arrival

Weather at SYD and MEL on those dates were not out the ordinary”

 

[Must...Fly!]

High winds might've limited movements? Does seem a little strange though.

 

[Quickstatus]

High winds might've limited movements? Does seem a little strange though.

Yes but the flights were cancelled 4 hours prior and the aircraft operated a different flight to the same destination 30min later And the second aircraft operates another flight 15min earlier.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Yes but the flights were cancelled 4 hours prior and the aircraft operated a different flight to the same destination 30min later And the second aircraft operates another flight 15min earlier.

That doesn't necessarily mean anything, as there would've been plenty of time to rego swap for any number of reasons between your friend's flight being cancelled and these other flights operating.