Are any Australian-registered commercial aircraft stuck in DPS?

[Melburnian1]

With the on again, off again nature of flights between Oz and DPS - which I featured in the 'VA delays/ cancellations' thread this morning, JQ taking longer to make a decision - are there any Australian-registered RPT aircraft stuck at DPS airport - presumably JQ or VA's?

One also wonders how long some airline crews have had their 'Bali holiday' extended - although I assume that many would have flown out in the brief period yesterday (Saturday 11 July) during which flights resumed. The media reports that JQ managed to lift 1000 passengers out of DPS yesterday, but does not give a figure as to how many - and coughulatively it must be over 2000 - Oz-bound travellers are still stuck in Bali, unable to get a flight back to Oz.

There have been occasional media resorts of passengers buying seats on SQ and travelling via SIN.

One other way out would be ferry from the western part of Bali Island to Banuwangi at the tip of East Java, local train to Surabaya then one of two train routes to Bandung and on to Jakarta, then fly to Oz, perhaps most easily via SIN given the greater number of flights - or perhaps train just to Surabaya if that airport is open, as the latter has flights in and out today.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Crew can often have higher priority than pax in these situations so the aircraft can be utilised elsewhere with minimal fleet disruption. There's a good article about how United and delta handled weather issues last year floating around

 

[Awesom Andy]

The media reports that JQ managed to lift 1000 passengers out of DPS yesterday, but does not give a figure as to how many - and coughulatively it must be over 2000 - Oz-bound travellers are still stuck in Bali, unable to get a flight back to Oz.

Jetstar flies to/from Bali to 5 or 6 AU cities, quite a few of them are daily. An A320 has 180 seats, so we're talking about 5 - 6 flights, so roughly 1 day worth of pax. And given that they were delayed by up to 3 days already at that point in time, I would presume that there is still a massive back log.

 

[yohy?!]

im curious as to whether or not people are getting out via other ports like SIN, MNL, BKK etc when other Asian carriers are flying.

if one got stuck in Bali due to flight cancellation would travel insurance typically cover a voluntary purchase of a new ticket home via SQ for instance?

 

[Awesom Andy]

im curious as to whether or not people are getting out via other ports like SIN, MNL, BKK etc when other Asian carriers are flying.

I would say that's unlikely, given that it's the end of school holidays, and coming to the end of Ramadan, many flights heading into Australia were already booked solid before volcano started coughing.

 

[Melburnian1]

yohi?1, here is an extract from one of the better available policies, but if memory serves me correctly some others exclude weather related events from coverage - this one includes it:

Travel Insurance Direct | Mount Raung Volcanic Ash Cloud

 

[A330]

im curious as to whether or not people are getting out via other ports like SIN, MNL, BKK etc when other Asian carriers are flying.

if one got stuck in Bali due to flight cancellation would travel insurance typically cover a voluntary purchase of a new ticket home via SQ for instance?

I imagine many holidaying in Bali did not purchase sufficient travel insurance, judging by the number of pax sleeping at the airport.

Even when DPS has closed to all airlines, why not get a ferry to LOP and fly from there?

Interestingly GA and XT have continued to fly to Australia when JQ and VA haven't.

 

[JohnPhelan]

I was in Jakarta last week. QF's flights ex CGK at this time of year are fully booked, so there's really no capacity for QF/JQ to do a DPS-CGK-Australia re-routing of pax. And of course, the whole airport at DPS was shut down at one point anyway.

This all started to occur while I was in Jakarta, but I did think about what I'd do if the cloud was between CGK and Australia. My solution in this case (and presuming it was still possible to fly north) would have been to head to either BKK or SIN and get home that way. But I would have been making it happen - I wouldn't have been sitting around just waiting for QF (or any other airline) to do it.

 

[dajop]

Even when DPS has closed to all airlines, why not get a ferry to LOP and fly from there?

Interestingly GA and XT have continued to fly to Australia when JQ and VA haven't.

Point 1), LOP has been closed as well for periods, at least according to Channel News Asia, so it is a risk to go there.
Point 2) I noticed on flightaware that, to pick an example, there is no record of GA 718 (11:30pm to MEL) on 09 July and the 10 July departure left at 15:47 on 11 July. Perhaps it is easier for GA and XT to manage being Indonesian based airlines, with ability to get aircraft into and out of DPS during the windows when the airport has been open, from places like CGK or SUB, which are obviously much closer than MEL or SYD.

 

[Melburnian1]

JohnPhelan, that's a really important point.

Some may condemn those who have run out of money as imprudent (although there must be some Australians who rely almost totally on cash and lack credit cards for numerous reasons), but irrespective as to where one's sympathies lie, it would be up to individual travellers to 'make it happen' when faced with a disruption like this.

The last thing I'd try to do is sleep at the airport (unless I knew I was booked on next day's flight) - otherwise, I'd be taking the ferry and then train through Surabaya to Jakarta and then flying internationally. MNL or BKK might be a better choice than KUL because at this time of year southbound flights ex MNL (I don't know about BKK) are not full (once school holidays end) and there are no masses of Ramadan travellers referred to above.

 

[yohy?!]

Had a look at bkk and seems like theyre already full - tickets sky high in Y

 

[albatross710]

The last thing I'd try to do is sleep at the airport (unless I knew I was booked on next day's flight) - otherwise, I'd be taking the ferry and then train through Surabaya to Jakarta and then flying internationally. MNL or BKK might be a better choice than KUL because at this time of year southbound flights ex MNL (I don't know about BKK) are not full (once school holidays end) and there are no masses of Ramadan travellers referred to above.

The issue is that in this case, it's not 1-2 travelers whom are thinking about taking ferries and trains. There are hundreds of extra people doing that, so those options are probably full as well. It's not just Australians, lots of Europeans would be lookig to go that way.

The frustrating part of all this is that I was on holiday in Bali just two weeks ago. I was happy when my Jetstar flight was delayed three hours. This week, I would have been happy to sit at the back of the Jetstar call centre queue and stay for a long time at Zurich (Westpac) expense. I'm not sure if that is possible, but I can dream.

Alby

 

[MEL_Traveller]

One also wonders how long some airline crews have had their 'Bali holiday' extended

i don't know how many cabin crew (as distinct from pilots) overnight in Bali - Aussie ones at least? I believe JQ cabin crew return same day? Don't know about Virgin?

The last thing I'd try to do is sleep at the airport (unless I knew I was booked on next day's flight) - otherwise, I'd be taking the ferry and then train through Surabaya to Jakarta and then flying internationally.

I was thinking about other options to get out of Bali - like ferry. But I'm not sure I'd trust an ferry in Indonesia? They don't seem to have the best safety record, and perhaps if they are 'full' (overcrowded) with people trying to get out it could be even less safe?

Or maybe that's just my unfair perception. (Happy to be proven wrong on the safety of ferries in Asia.)