QF44 last night - not a great flight to be on

[markis10]

Diverted to Melbourne due to holding times at Sydney last night, then missed the curfew by seconds on its second attempt to get to Sydney and had to go back to Melbourne!

 

[opusman]

Do you get SCs for AKL-MEL-SYD-MEL-SYD at least?

 

[markis10]

I have seen worse, once held a BA 744 in my airspace for 7 hours then sent him back to MEL for fuel after Sydney was closed for fog, naturally the fog lifted once Speedbird was headed south.

 

[opusman]

I wonder why they would divert to MEL rather than CBR?

 

[harvyk]

I wonder why they would divert to MEL rather than CBR?

No full time immi or aqis at CBR...

 

[under the radar]

No full time immi or aqis at CBR...

thats what i thought..as some domestic flights diverted to CBR..(although at first i thought they took a vote onboard an NO ONE wanted to overnight in canberra)!!! :shock:

 

[straitman]

This is the perfect example of how/where 'some' flexibility is needed with the SYD curfew.


Sent from AFF Mobile Edition

 

[simongr]

Diverted to Melbourne due to holding times at Sydney last night, then missed the curfew by seconds and had to go back to Melbourne!

I am a bit confused the flight was diverted to MEL due to holding times at SYD but then tried again to get to SYD and then missed curfew and was diverted to MEL? The bit in bold is missing from the OP.

 

[markis10]

I am a bit confused the flight was diverted to MEL due to holding times at SYD but then tried again to get to SYD and then missed curfew and was diverted to MEL? The bit in bold is missing from the OP.

I have edited the post to make it clearer, although I thought a picture was worth a thousand words

 

[dfcatch]

This is the perfect example of how/where 'some' flexibility is needed with the SYD curfew.


Sent from AFF Mobile Edition

The simple answer is that SYD shouldn't be our major Int port.

We have MEL sitting there idle, perfectly capable with no curfew issues and yet we insanely insist on persisting with SYD whilst also persisting with the curfew.......

One of the mindsets has to go.


Sent from AFF Mobile Edition

 

[under the radar]

This is the perfect example of how/where 'some' flexibility is needed with the SYD curfew.


Sent from AFF Mobile Edition

totally agree..(and btw..i live next to syd airport..and i CHOSE to live here and accept the aircraft noise..its all part of city living!!)

 

[straitman]

The simple answer is that SYD shouldn't be our major Int port.

We have MEL sitting there idle, perfectly capable with no curfew issues and yet we insanely insist on persisting with SYD whilst also persisting with the curfew.......

One of the mindsets has to go.


Sent from AFF Mobile Edition

More correctly, 'Qantas and the like' insanely insist on persisting with SYD'

 

[harvyk]

thats what i thought..as some domestic flights diverted to CBR..(although at first i thought they took a vote onboard an NO ONE wanted to overnight in canberra)!!! :shock:

Well we also get some international flights diverted here as well, but they tend to be early morning flights due to fog in SYD or MEL, where the pax won't actually need to leave the plane whilst waiting. Late afternoon flights where the pax may very well need to leave the aircraft at some stage are a problem.

 

[anat0l]

I wonder why they would divert to MEL rather than CBR?

The last time a QF international flight diverted to CBR was a PR nightmare for the airline. No disembarkation allowed, no provisions allowed to be supplied... the aircraft was as good as treated as a hostile.

You'd have to be mad or have a medical emergency (and even then) to divert to CBR. And let's not forget the air noise complaints that will surely be raised by the Canberran residents the next day.

More correctly, 'Qantas and the like' insanely insist on persisting with SYD'

Many major carriers are persisting with SYD, sending both the most and their best (viz. premium) traffic there. QF certainly is not helping, but more carriers want to get into SYD, for perverted reasons that escape me.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using AustFreqFly mobile app

 

[oz_mark]

Many major carriers are persisting with SYD, sending both the most and their best (viz. premium) traffic there. QF certainly is not helping, but more carriers want to get into SYD, for perverted reasons that escape me.

Is it just not possible that the reason just might be a commercial one based on customer preferences. They just might deploy their assets to where the best commercial return is.

 

[anat0l]

Is it just not possible that the reason just might be a commercial one based on customer preferences. They just might deploy their assets to where the best commercial return is.

It's possible, but considering the expenses - which includes covering the additional risks entailed with SYD (movement restrictions) - it's difficult to reason why it would not be cheaper to fly to MEL or BNE, then perhaps even do a codeshare or package deal with QF or DJ. I'd factor that the cost of the competition application and approvals would still put them ahead.

Of course you do have a point from the customer perspective. If the airlines are listening to the customer base, then most non-Australian travellers only know of Sydney when it comes to places in our country (and about the same number of people know that Sydney is not the capital of Australia as those Australian citizens who know how to sing our national anthem, i.e. 5% if you're lucky). So they are probably all saying that, "We want you to fly to Sydney," even though everyone here knows why the other two key east coast capitals make excellent destinations compared to our Port Phillip denizens. :mrgreen: And when SYD movement regulations stuff flights around, only select Australians really know that it's government regulation that is to "blame". Everyone else knows it as the airlines' fault.

I suppose all said and done, curfew related delays don't happen often enough (even to Australians) to actually make it a real big issue, notwithstanding the recently reported $600 million opportunity loss (which I believe is a dubious figure). Until curfew related incidents happen at least 200 times a year, and/or someone dies due to dispensation denied on medical grounds, we're not going to see the end of the curfew any time soon.


Sent from my GT-I9300 using AustFreqFly mobile app

 

[simongr]

Many major carriers are persisting with SYD, sending both the most and their best (viz. premium) traffic there. QF certainly is not helping, but more carriers want to get into SYD, for perverted reasons that escape me.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using AustFreqFly mobile app

In simple terms if you asked people outside of Australia to name two Australian cities a large proportion would name Sydney and unprompted struggle to name another. Prompted would get a much better response.

So when looking in a travel agent's window cheap flights to Melbourne and Brisbane would elicit the response of "Where is that?"

 

[lovestotravel]

I am a little surprised they had that much spare fuel

 

[dfcatch]

In simple terms if you asked people outside of Australia to name two Australian cities a large proportion would name Sydney and unprompted struggle to name another. Prompted would get a much better response.

So when looking in a travel agent's window cheap flights to Melbourne and Brisbane would elicit the response of "Where is that?"

Only because decades of government and airline policy/decision-making has been to schedule SYD into those routes (and the building of associated instrastructure)

 

[jetlagger]

Queensland.. Well BNE, doesn't suffer from any issues such as this, other than At times -rare- fog dilemmas.
So it is nice to be a geographic backwater in the scheme of things.
With limited & eroding options QF is & will always be Sydney centric.