Melburnian1
Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
- Posts
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Today marks 10 years since the delays/cancellations threads on 'AFF' were commenced.
While 'Ask The Pilot' is clearly AFF's number one drawcard with its three million views (deservedly so), the delays and cancellations threads evoke interest, with almost a million views of the Qantas subsection.
75 airlines have featured. Some, such as TigerAirways, are no longer with us.
Others, such as Bonza domestically and VietJet Air are recent additions.
Huge thanks to AFFers including Silvia, Quckstatus, 789nerd and Qantas employee milehighclub plus occasionally aviators jb747 and AviatorInsight for contributing.
OATEK, Must...Fly!, exLXCXFF, MELTraveller and tomlee1986 are a few others whose usernames spring to mind as often providing us with interesting information.
And who can omit Flyerqf, who often has way better information (or is faster) than me?
If I've forgotten you, my apologies.
What stands out is the overall poor performance of our domestic airlines Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Australia and Regional Express in keeping to timetables and in particular, arriving within 15 minutes of the schedule. Weather such as yesterday's high winds restricting Sydney Airport to one runway until mid afternoon at 1445 hours is one, but far from the only, factor.
Newbie Bonza appears to have many flights that arrive around half an hour late if the last few days is any indication.
Internationally, while it operates more flights than any other carrier, Qantas mainline and subsidiary Jetstar take the cake for the worst punctuality and reliability (latter is cancellations). It's worth remembering that the majority of passengers on international flights to/from Australia use foreign carriers, not Australian ones.
Flagship Qantas flight QF1 is one of the worst performers. While Qantas is proud of its nonstop Perth to London QF9, it seems to me that it was a mistake to use a different aircraft type in the B789 (necessary, of course on this route) instead of continuing the 'two daily' offerings via SIN (that for a few years were routed via DXB). However Qantas' defence would be its claim that the London routes are now profitable, something we can't contest as we lack access to route-by-route performance and what corporate costs the company loads on to each.
We can no longer compare Virgin Australia much internationally as its route network has shrunk. In 2016, I flew with it to Los Angeles: no longer possible, at least on its own metal.
Some delays are likely to be fixed in the future. The present problems with QF25 form Sydney to Tokyo's Haneda airport are because it's an Airbus A330-300 mostly formed by the almost always late QF104 from Honolulu. Flyerqf says from late October 2023, a Boeing 787-900 will take over to Haneda so hopefully not so many delays.
The foreign USA "mainland" carriers such as United have a greater propensity to run late than numerous Asian carriers., though the latter's routes are of shorter duration.
The rise of airlines such as Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways hasn't been accompanied by a commensurate percentage rise for each in flights delayed more than 15 minutes at destination. This stands to their credit as SQ has become a major irritant to QFi, and QR would be more if the Federal government would accede to its request for more flights into our island continent.
The outstanding punctuality of airlines such as China Airlines of Taiwan is a window into a small nation of 23 million like it, and very reflective as to how advanced it is. So while it hardly ever features with a cancellation or delay, rest assured, it's doing a good job.
Some airlines can be confusing. Batik Air, for instance, has two sets of flight designators if I'm not mistaken. It's often unpunctual.
Airlines that have reduced the number of flights into Australia tend to feature a lot less than in early years of the delay/cancellation pages. Etihad is one that seems diminshed compared with when I previously travelled on it. IIRC, Thai Airways, a carrier that perhaps ought be bankrupt, is another that used to have greater flight frequency into the great southern land. Royal Brunei Airlines from the (previously) oil-rich state used to fly into multiple Australian destinations: now Melbourne only, and not even daily.
The gradual rise of international low-cost airlines (albeit interrupted by COVID-19) isn't well recorded in these delay/cancellation pages, but it's been a feature of the decade. AirAsiaX has resumed flying across the Tasman: I don't often monitor its punctuality.
Because there's such a huge number of domestic delays, I decided not to concentrate on these.
I fail to give the TransTasman routes as much attention as they deserve, as they're a major contributor to international passenger numbers. Timekeeping of Air New Zealand, Qantas and Jetstar across the ditch is nothing to write home about.
In any case, typically I only record delays of half an hour and above, and always concentrate on arrival times compared to the timetable, as that's what matters most to travellers.
While 'Ask The Pilot' is clearly AFF's number one drawcard with its three million views (deservedly so), the delays and cancellations threads evoke interest, with almost a million views of the Qantas subsection.
75 airlines have featured. Some, such as TigerAirways, are no longer with us.
Others, such as Bonza domestically and VietJet Air are recent additions.
Huge thanks to AFFers including Silvia, Quckstatus, 789nerd and Qantas employee milehighclub plus occasionally aviators jb747 and AviatorInsight for contributing.
OATEK, Must...Fly!, exLXCXFF, MELTraveller and tomlee1986 are a few others whose usernames spring to mind as often providing us with interesting information.
And who can omit Flyerqf, who often has way better information (or is faster) than me?
If I've forgotten you, my apologies.
What stands out is the overall poor performance of our domestic airlines Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Australia and Regional Express in keeping to timetables and in particular, arriving within 15 minutes of the schedule. Weather such as yesterday's high winds restricting Sydney Airport to one runway until mid afternoon at 1445 hours is one, but far from the only, factor.
Newbie Bonza appears to have many flights that arrive around half an hour late if the last few days is any indication.
Internationally, while it operates more flights than any other carrier, Qantas mainline and subsidiary Jetstar take the cake for the worst punctuality and reliability (latter is cancellations). It's worth remembering that the majority of passengers on international flights to/from Australia use foreign carriers, not Australian ones.
Flagship Qantas flight QF1 is one of the worst performers. While Qantas is proud of its nonstop Perth to London QF9, it seems to me that it was a mistake to use a different aircraft type in the B789 (necessary, of course on this route) instead of continuing the 'two daily' offerings via SIN (that for a few years were routed via DXB). However Qantas' defence would be its claim that the London routes are now profitable, something we can't contest as we lack access to route-by-route performance and what corporate costs the company loads on to each.
We can no longer compare Virgin Australia much internationally as its route network has shrunk. In 2016, I flew with it to Los Angeles: no longer possible, at least on its own metal.
Some delays are likely to be fixed in the future. The present problems with QF25 form Sydney to Tokyo's Haneda airport are because it's an Airbus A330-300 mostly formed by the almost always late QF104 from Honolulu. Flyerqf says from late October 2023, a Boeing 787-900 will take over to Haneda so hopefully not so many delays.
The foreign USA "mainland" carriers such as United have a greater propensity to run late than numerous Asian carriers., though the latter's routes are of shorter duration.
The rise of airlines such as Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways hasn't been accompanied by a commensurate percentage rise for each in flights delayed more than 15 minutes at destination. This stands to their credit as SQ has become a major irritant to QFi, and QR would be more if the Federal government would accede to its request for more flights into our island continent.
The outstanding punctuality of airlines such as China Airlines of Taiwan is a window into a small nation of 23 million like it, and very reflective as to how advanced it is. So while it hardly ever features with a cancellation or delay, rest assured, it's doing a good job.
Some airlines can be confusing. Batik Air, for instance, has two sets of flight designators if I'm not mistaken. It's often unpunctual.
Airlines that have reduced the number of flights into Australia tend to feature a lot less than in early years of the delay/cancellation pages. Etihad is one that seems diminshed compared with when I previously travelled on it. IIRC, Thai Airways, a carrier that perhaps ought be bankrupt, is another that used to have greater flight frequency into the great southern land. Royal Brunei Airlines from the (previously) oil-rich state used to fly into multiple Australian destinations: now Melbourne only, and not even daily.
The gradual rise of international low-cost airlines (albeit interrupted by COVID-19) isn't well recorded in these delay/cancellation pages, but it's been a feature of the decade. AirAsiaX has resumed flying across the Tasman: I don't often monitor its punctuality.
Because there's such a huge number of domestic delays, I decided not to concentrate on these.
I fail to give the TransTasman routes as much attention as they deserve, as they're a major contributor to international passenger numbers. Timekeeping of Air New Zealand, Qantas and Jetstar across the ditch is nothing to write home about.
In any case, typically I only record delays of half an hour and above, and always concentrate on arrival times compared to the timetable, as that's what matters most to travellers.
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