Qantas Passengers "dumped" at Christchurch airport after diverting from Wellington after missing curfew

On the topic of tonight's flight;
VH-VZY just landed in SYD QF164 (QFA164) Qantas Flight Tracking and History 04-Jul-2022 (WLG / NZWN-SYD / YSSY) - FlightAware after operating QF164.

QF163 tonight is supposed to be VH-VZY too, so not sure how that's gonna go. Looks like the new scheduled departure is only 15 minutes after the plane touches down (no way). Are they going to delay, get another plane, or divert again? I'm watching with anticipation.

 
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Hopefully pax transiting SYD are put up in a hotel tonight...

Nah, but seriously. When will QF learn to accommodate passengers properly when these things happen? The fact that it happens is not a big deal, but it just seems like a complete fail accommodating passengers every time it does happen.
 
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If the airline cannot conjure up an airline rep at CHC, I don't think it can get a govt department to get customs/immigration people with the relevant IT equipment out to Palmeston North anytime before sunrise.

It is probably the easiest of the two though. You don’t call a government department, customs have a duty number that goes straight to the team. The military use it all the time.
 
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Would've expected them to find another 737 body in Sydney (from cancelling a SYD-MEL or something) to operate today's SYD-WLG as normal. Weird that they'd rather use the same frame and create another day of delays/cancellations?
 
Probably needs a 737 that still has a life raft.
I wonder what percentage of QF/VA 737's are actually able to fly overseas? Both VA and QF removed life rafts from many of their aircraft meaning they can't operate them more than 400 miles off the coast. Similarly aircraft operating into Australia/New Zealand from overseas need to have up to date pest spraying (once every 8 weeks).

Qantas also seems to only use 737's with in seat screens (only 37 of 75 737's) across the tasman.
 
Firstly they'd need an actual emergency to go to Palmerston. In the absence of that, it's hard to say how the Kiwi authorities would have treated them, but I doubt that it would have had a quick resolution. And even if the Kiwis didn't get nasty about it, my bet would be that nobody would be permitted to disembark. Everyone would just get to sit there until the time ticked over for them to be able to fly to Wellington.

As to why they departed in the first place, who knows, but given that the track was directly towards Wellington, you'd have to assume that they had some reason to expect to be able to land there.

Talk of taxis, buses, etc is all irrelevant if immigration keeps you locked in the cabin. Christchurch was probably a good alternative to that.
 
Could require some ability to predict the future. I doubt you could even contact any local bus companies after about 6pm.... so not sure how a delay becoming evident some hours later can be planned for... 🤔

Not difficult, because where there are railways, bus companies typically can be contacted at any hour of the day or night for 'rail replacement coaches'.

So if the rail operators can get in touch at any time, so can QFi.
 

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