Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[Quickstatus]

QF11 on Friday 27 November departed at 1309, an hour and 39 minutes behind time, from SYD to LAX. It should arrive at 0703 rather than 0635, picking up 61 minutes.

I wonder if airlines depart late if the computer predicts a shorter flight duration?

 

[Comoman]

I wonder if airlines depart late if the computer predicts a shorter flight duration?

Yes they do - it has happened a few times to me as they don't want to arrive before the 6am curfew ends in Sydney.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF93 (operated by A388 VH-OQH) on Saturday 28 November was once again late away, departing 38 down at 1203 from MEL with LAX arrival forecast at 0705, 30 minutes behind time.

QF19 has been delayed in SYD and is suggested as departing at 1300, 35 minutes late. While MNL arrival is shown as 1750, 20 minutes late, this is often difficult to achieve given the congestion at that airport.

Interesting to note if I recall correctly that from April 2016 QF11 and QF12 will become a B744 on Tuesdays, so that may help to reduce the pressure on the fleet of 12 Airbuses a little.

 

[Quickstatus]

Yes they do - it has happened a few times to me as they don't want to arrive before the 6am curfew ends in Sydney.

I wonder how that impacts on the statistics re on time departures?

 

[Melburnian1]

Quickstatus, the really important statistic is whether a flight arrives within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival.

This is the standard measurement margin: it is very generous for short flights.

The airlines will not admit it and yes, flying conditions as well as tarmac delays vary from day to day, but they routinely insert extra time into timetables.

At times air traffic control may give a flight a new, amended (later) departure time due to anticipated traffic at the destination. That may be outside the airline's contro

In Australia, only domestic flights with two or more airlines competing on a route are publicly measured for punctuality and cancellations. International flights are not so measured although those statistics would be very interesting.

 

[Himeno]

I wonder if airlines depart late if the computer predicts a shorter flight duration?

They do it all the time. Depends on expected winds for that flight, ground traffic at departing airport and if the arriving airport has runway or terminal limits such as curfews.

Had a SIN-MEL flight a few years ago, before the DXB changes, where everyone was boarded on time, doors were closed, then we sat on the ramp for 30+ minutes because the "runway they needed to use at MEL didn't open until x".
Then a flight a few months ago to HND - which doesn't have a curfew (unlike NRT) - where we were an hour early but just landed anyway. Had the same flight been to NRT, we would have stayed at SYD for longer and then circled NRT until 6am.

 

[JohnPhelan]

Interesting to note if I recall correctly that from April 2016 QF11 and QF12 will become a B744 on Tuesdays, so that may help to reduce the pressure on the fleet of 12 Airbuses a little.

This change will have no impact, as the aircraft being freed up is going to fly SYD-DFW-SYD, to make the QF7/8 a daily fight.

 

[jb747]

Presumably much of the information here (and in other places) comes from Flightradar24. I've been wondering about their accuracy for a while, in particular wondering just what they use as their departure times. Looking back at a couple of my flights, I've found substantial differences between their times, and my own. For instance, on my last flight, we departed 1 minute early, and yet FR24 shows departure as 15 minutes late. Fairly obviously, they're not using the departure time (which is recorded at the gate), but rather the airborne time (though I can't even make that fit on all occasions).

 

[Quickstatus]

Presumably much of the information here (and in other places) comes from Flightradar24. I've been wondering about their accuracy for a while, in particular wondering just what they use as their departure times. Looking back at a couple of my flights, I've found substantial differences between their times, and my own. For instance, on my last flight, we departed 1 minute early, and yet FR24 shows departure as 15 minutes late. Fairly obviously, they're not using the departure time (which is recorded at the gate), but rather the airborne time (though I can't even make that fit on all occasions).

I have wondered about that too and am unsure whether departure/arrival means door closed/open or something else. Yesterday daughter flew into DEN. On approach from south to land, the flight turned to the west and started heading back toward denver city. I got a SMS from daughter to announce arrival at gate when aircraft still supposed to be in the air at FL5 according to FR24.

 

[Himeno]

Presumably much of the information here (and in other places) comes from Flightradar24. I've been wondering about their accuracy for a while, in particular wondering just what they use as their departure times. Looking back at a couple of my flights, I've found substantial differences between their times, and my own. For instance, on my last flight, we departed 1 minute early, and yet FR24 shows departure as 15 minutes late. Fairly obviously, they're not using the departure time (which is recorded at the gate), but rather the airborne time (though I can't even make that fit on all occasions).

I assume they take the time the aircraft is picked up by one of their ADS-B receivers, sometimes that's on the ground and sometimes it's after take off.

I have wondered about that too and am unsure whether departure/arrival means door closed/open or something else. Yesterday daughter flew into DEN. On approach from south to land, the flight turned to the west and started heading back toward denver city. I got a SMS from daughter to announce arrival at gate when aircraft still supposed to be in the air at FL5 according to FR24.

That would be from the 5 minute delay on FAA data.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Presumably much of the information here (and in other places) comes from Flightradar24. I've been wondering about their accuracy for a while, in particular wondering just what they use as their departure times. Looking back at a couple of my flights, I've found substantial differences between their times, and my own. For instance, on my last flight, we departed 1 minute early, and yet FR24 shows departure as 15 minutes late. Fairly obviously, they're not using the departure time (which is recorded at the gate), but rather the airborne time (though I can't even make that fit on all occasions).

I think flightaware uses wheels-up to wheels-down (or as close as they can get to that). Flightradar seems more accurate than flightaware - not sure if the latter has some sort of 'estimated' or 'delayed' reporting. Flightaware will often show an aircraft as 'arrived' when flightradar still has it in the air on approach.

 

[Quickstatus]

I assume they take the time the aircraft is picked up by one of their ADS-B receivers, sometimes that's on the ground and sometimes it's after take off.

That would be from the 5 minute delay on FAA data.

I understand that there is a delay between FAA data and the display on the app. What I dont understand is the change in direction in flight direction when none actually occured. The flight in front and flight behind landed in series but my daughters flight peeled off to the west

 

[Melburnian1]

AFF member and pilot Boris spatsky (great name!) succinctly explained some of the Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker! workings in a nice post about three weeks ago. I think it was when I asked a question in the 'Ask the pilot' section but I could not quickly find the contribution.

FR24 uses takeoff times, not pushback from the gate. However sometimes when a flight is arriving it displays an estimated arrival time that is very close or 'right on' when the aircraft pulls up at its rostered gate.

As jb747 commented, sometimes the times seem quite inaccurate. Once a flight has levelled out at cruise, FR24 seems to often 'adjust' the arrival time to become much closer to what actually occurs.

 

[Melburnian1]

The 1355 hours from MEL to ADL, QF685 did not take off until 1619 on Sunday 29 November 2015, a day of otherwise good punctuality for most flights in southeastern Oz. It should be in Adelaide at 1650 instead of 1445. B738 VH-VYK is the plane.

QF764 from ADL to SYD has therefore been delayed from 1605 to a suggested 1730 in its departure. QF sugegsts that SYD arrival will be an identical 85 minutes late at 1955 this evening. There is no gate number shown yet for its SYD arrival so it is not clear if another flight elsewhere will also be delayed, but Sunday evenings are pretty busy so the chances of that are high.

QF690 from ADL to MEL departed 42 and should arrive 40 minutes late at 1612 and 1755 respectvely.

 

[Melburnian1]

Due to severe storms over both BNE and OOL (although I cannot see if they are directly over each airport), two VA flights have diverted to MCY (see separate post under 'Virgin Australia delays/ cancellations.)

Flights such as QF542, the 1736 hours from SYD to BNE that took off at 1752 remain in a holding pattern southwest of BNE. This flight was due to arrive at BNE at 1805 Queensland time so is now at least 20 minutes late. The weather looks ominous to say the least, although hard to tell unless one is there. Perhaps JohnK can fill us in.

QF540, the 1705 from SYD (B738 VH-VZM) remains in a holding pattern at 1818 AEST and is hence more than an hour late. One wonders how much more time it can do this for.

To use a word 'advisedly', airlines must 'love' such weather less than four hours before SYD goes into curfew as the result will be delays compounding into and out of BNE tonight as planes on the ground have been unable to depart for a while, so it looks, although better if we have confirmation from an AFFer or three sitting on a plane or in a lounge or general area at BNE (or OOL) airports.

We may even see - in a worst case scenario - some later evening flights being cancelled.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

BNE airport closed tonight due to severe storms. All ground operations ceased around 5:35pm. All QF flights grounded awaiting lift of ground staff ban. Likely to be a long night for some, including me. We are hoping our two puppies aren't stuck out on the tarmac as we were due to depart on QF551 at 17:55.

 

[Melburnian1]

Thank you to the AFFer on the ground in BNE! QF549, the 1725 from BNE to SYD is in position waiting to take off once ATC gives the green light, so it is at least an hour late. QF597, the 1700 from BNE to PER, another B738 (VH-VZV) has yet to take off and does not look like so doing within the next 10 minutes, so expect it to be two hours late into the WA capital.

The Qantaslink QF2557 departed from RMA four minutes ahead of time at 1646 but as luck would have it also got caught by the storms and with QF400 VH-QOF doing the honours has an extremely extensive series of 'laps' with probable arrival at 1813 hours in BNE, 73 minutes late.

The 1200 high noon QF598 from PER to BNE was late in taking off at 1257 WST but naturally lost further time with the storms and is about to land at 1918 so the good ship A332 VH-EBA will be about an hour late on the timetabled arrival time of 1825 hours.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

BNE airport still closed at 19:10 - some latent lightning activity in the area but the bulk of the storm activity has passed.
All flights from the QF549 mentioned above will be rescheduled once ground operations recommence.
QF555 BNE-SYD - cancelled.
At least 20 ex-BNE flights will be affected by the delay.

 

[Melburnian1]

ComeFlyWithMe, you are our reporter on the spot but from what FR24 is showing, flights have been arriving into BNE in a steady stream (albeit almost all are late, some badly so) and a smaller number have been taking off.

That does not quite 'jell' with what you suggest.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

Apparently ground operations are affected but I have seen flights arriving. I don't believe there has been any baggage or ground service being provided.

Airport has just reopened at 19:23 approx and departing flights are being rescheduled in order of scheduled departure time.