Virgin delays DELAYS DELAYS

[markis10]

The January figures were published on the 21 Feb, so a week or so before Feb ones are available?

Jan on-time was worse than Dec on-time, so with the extra bits you added in and my own experiences I would imagine Feb and March worse again.

Unless of course in a bid to make their figures look not so bad they have fewer, but longer, delays.....

Jan figures were impacted by bad weather which I elaborated on elsewhere, which is why QF link and JQ were bad given they all fly into regional ports that are more affected by such weather, hence the need for an update to validate the trend.

 

[Stuser]

Back to the OP - given you are about to requal gold I am guessing you have had many other VA flights since the status match? What was OTP like for them?

Three out of four with significant delays seems like someone is picking on you

About half of my scs come from trans-tasman flights, mostly on Air NZ and less often on VA metal, but these all seem to be on time-ish.... it's really the domestic flights that are problematic.... and this mostly in the last couple of months....

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I think what he is saying is that they still run with LCC turn around times, so there is insufficient time to restock a full galley, clean the aircraft. Load and get out of there. 30 min turn around? Is that right? Pretty big ask, they may need to adjust turnaround times as things progress

I have noticed there is less congestion in the aerobridge when boarding a DJ B737 or JQ A320 vs a QF B737 as DJ often use the aerobridge for pax seated forward in the a/c & rear stairs for the aft rows.

Not sure whether JQ do the aerobridge/stairs combo but last time I flew JQ we were on a standoff bay so they used forward & rear stairs for boarding which speeds up the process somewhat.

 

[Jleno]

Bringing this up again as I have been delayed on Virgin domestic flights out of Sydney for the last 3 times (flying on Fridays). I'm about to book another domestic flight, and with the Virgin and QANTAS domestic flights almost on par price-wise, I'm wondering whether I should be choosing QANTAS instead. The delays for Virgin flights out of Sydney were across more than one destination, and the reasons were always because the incoming flights were delayed. The fact that it's more than one destination and that it's because incoming flights were late, makes me think it might be the operational procedures (meaning delays are likely to recur) of Virgin rather than unpredictable weather (random).

Anyone face similar issues on QANTAS domestic with flight delays in the past month?

 

[markis10]

Delays on a Friday night are to be expected, and have been the norm for many years regardless of the airline. Sydney is capped in movements, if the weather gets bad anywhere on the golden triangle, it normally means flow on effects result in delays until last flight.

In general, QF and DJ have similar OTP performance records, so I would not suggest changing airline on this basis:

Scheduled	Flown	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Jetstar
Qantas
QantasLink
Regional Express
Skywest
Tiger Airways
Virgin Australia
Virgin Australia – ATR/F100 Operations
All Airlines

Table 1: Total Industry On Time Performance for August 2012
[TH="colspan: 2, align: center"]Sectors[/TH]
[TH="colspan: 2, align: center"]Departures On Time[/TH]
[TH="colspan: 2, align: center"]Arrivals On Time[/TH]
[TH="colspan: 2, align: center"]Cancellations[/TH]

[TD="align: right"]6232[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6187[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]4837[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]78.2[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]4832[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]78.1[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]45[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]0.7[/TD]

[TD="align: right"]11240[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]11087[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]9459[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]85.3[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]9126[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]82.3[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]153[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1.4[/TD]

[TD="align: right"]9538[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]9315[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]7481[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]80.3[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]7197[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]77.3[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]223[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]2.3[/TD]

[TD="align: right"]5855[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]5837[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]4824[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]82.6[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]4834[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]82.8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]18[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]0.3[/TD]

[TD="align: right"]944[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]944[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]740[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]78.4[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]671[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]71.1[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]0[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]0.0[/TD]

[TD="align: right"]1317[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1295[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]982[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]75.8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]950[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]73.4[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]22[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1.7[/TD]

[TD="align: right"]11681[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]11491[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]9839[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]85.6[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]9462[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]82.3[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]190[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1.6[/TD]

[TD="align: right"]1482[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1466[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1283[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]87.5[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1238[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]84.4[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]16[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1.1[/TD]

[TD="align: right"]48289[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]47622[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]39445[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]82.8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]38310[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]80.4[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]667[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1.4[/TD]

[h=3]Figure 1: Total Industry On Time Performance by month from August 2009[/h]

 

[eastwest101]

I would also suggest typical changeable spring weather in SE Australia, a bit of Sydney congestion plus some delays at BNE - each one of the 6 flights through BNE lately has been delayed for me (QF and VA). It all coughulatively builds its way through the system during the day for both QF and VA.

 

[docjames]

JohnK is delayed every Friday on QF from BNE to syd.

Spot the common factors - Friday,Sydney. That's your problem, not virgin. But feel free to swap, people have switched for less.

 

[serfty]

JohnK is delayed every Friday on QF from BNE to syd.

Spot the common factors - Friday,Sydney. That's your problem, not virgin. But feel free to swap, people have switched for less.

Johnk even gets delayed on the fridays when he flies DJ.

Posted on a wing and a prayer ...

 

[obrienja]

I'm going to have to disagree with docjames I've had a lot of SYD-PER-SYD evening flights with QF & VA and it's VA with their XFBroken and XFAwful (it used to be Awesome) that were the main culprits and they were maintenance issues. I'd agree with the earlier sentiment that a relatively small number of planes and a limited amount of time for maintenance could be the issues. If I need to get there on time I choose QF - if it's not such an issue VA is ok.

 

[MarkD]

I'm going to have to disagree with docjames I've had a lot of SYD-PER-SYD evening flights with QF & VA and it's VA with their XFBroken and XFAwful (it used to be Awesome) that were the main culprits and they were maintenance issues. I'd agree with the earlier sentiment that a relatively small number of planes and a limited amount of time for maintenance could be the issues. If I need to get there on time I choose QF - if it's not such an issue VA is ok.

Bit of a big call there!!!
I have been late plenty of times on qf. Remember all it takes is for someone to checkin a bag and not board, and you are sitting for ages waiting to go, whilst they find and unload said bag. Just because you get on the thing on time doesnt mean you will leave on time.
Also re aircraft going US i would rather not be on a plane thats not fit to fly, and would be thankful they found a tech issue on the ground.


I'm too poor to own a signature

 

[obrienja]

Hi MarkD,

I appreciate your point about lateness for things like missing passengers happening to anyone but I've had more incidents of delays due to equipment with V. Of course that's anecdotal and everyone's experience is different but it wasn't that long ago that a number of people on here were bemoaning XFBs on time performance.

I agree with not wanting to be on a U/S aircraft but perhaps more preventative maintenance would catch minor issues before they became major ones. I'm glad I don't work for John Holland - I imagine the pressure to get things done quickly on the ramp must be pretty intense.

 

[markis10]

Hi MarkD,

I appreciate your point about lateness for things like missing passengers happening to anyone but I've had more incidents of delays due to equipment with V. Of course that's anecdotal and everyone's experience is different but it wasn't that long ago that a number of people on here were bemoaning XFBs on time performance.

I agree with not wanting to be on a U/S aircraft but perhaps more preventative maintenance would catch minor issues before they became major ones. I'm glad I don't work for John Holland - I imagine the pressure to get things done quickly on the ramp must be pretty intense.

Equipment failure can happen at anytime, but with an average fleet age of 3.5 years at DJ versus QF at 11.5 years, I am betting its more likely not at DJ!

 

[docjames]

I'm going to have to disagree with docjames I've had a lot of SYD-PER-SYD evening flights with QF & VA and it's VA with their XFBroken and XFAwful (it used to be Awesome) that were the main culprits and they were maintenance issues. I'd agree with the earlier sentiment that a relatively small number of planes and a limited amount of time for maintenance could be the issues. If I need to get there on time I choose QF - if it's not such an issue VA is ok.

My point was that SYD was essentially the common denominator.

Which your sample includes.


So I guess we agree??

 

[straitman]

Bit of a big call there!!!
I have been late plenty of times on qf. Remember all it takes is for someone to checkin a bag and not board, and you are sitting for ages waiting to go, whilst they find and unload said bag. Just because you get on the thing on time doesnt mean you will leave on time.
Also re aircraft going US i would rather not be on a plane thats not fit to fly, and would be thankful they found a tech issue on the ground.


I'm too poor to own a signature

I agree with MarkD on this.

My OTP with DJ is so far ahead of QF that there is no comparison.

 

[Major]

The closure of runway 14/32 at BNE doesn't help either. Peak hour holding patterns seem to be the norm at the moment. When you add this to SYD's busy traffic you would be lucky to get OT departure for any airline during peak periods

 

[Noob]

wasn't that long ago that a number of people on here were bemoaning XFBs on time performance.

VH-XFB has new engines now, according to crew.