Anyone stuck in Brisbane?

[AstroDamo]

Currently sitting in the Qantas lounge in Brisbane tarmac has been closed for about an hour I think. Moved myself up two flights trying to combat Sydney curfew. QF549 my new flight is currently sitting just outside the gate unable to get into it after its arrival.

Update: 1748 tarmac reopened

 

[Melburnian1]

It is now 1900 BNE time (2000) MEL and SYD time) and many flights are at least an hour late.

QF624 from MEL departed only 12 minutes late at 1517 but did not arrive BNE until 1752, 97 minutes late. QF626 left MEL on time at 1605 and was only four minutes behind QF624 at BNE. This shows the huge variability.

No flights are at risk of breaching the SYD 2300 curfew but with three hours to go, that may change.

AstroDamo's QF549 (the 1725 to SYD) is still sitting at the gate so it looks like arriving in SYD later than the forecast, late 2130.

 

[AstroDamo]

Currently onboard QF549 we have a mechanical fault, low hydrolic indication fault. Engineers completing paperwork then should be underway :/

 

[Scott Brown]

925 from TSV circled for 1 hour and then I was on last out of BNE on 557 landing just on 2300 in SYD. I reckon the plane was completely dry by the time we landed

 

[Melburnian1]

While it is not an exact science, one source I read estimates that the amount of consumed fuel for a B738 is around 2500 kilograms an hour. An hour extra in the air must come at a substantial cost, and one that neither QF or VA would allow for every day.

The number of flights using SYD, for instance, has doubled since 1985 (the annual number was about 140,000 in 1985 v 290,000 today: divide by two to get the number of flights that landed, or those that departed).

Excess fuel burn must be a substantial cost to the airlines. However it did not seem any flights had to divert to other airports with the BNE problems last night, so pilots are presumably ensuring that their craft have sufficient extra fuel to cope with a delay in the air of this magnitude. Even carrying this extra buffer comes at a financial cost (of course, it may not be able to be avoided).

 

[QPProletarian]

There has been issues with fuel wastage and holding patterns in BNE for a while (mostly due to the small runway closure). I flew through on Sunday and had smoke fill the cabin on descent from the Straddie bushfires.