Melburnian1
Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
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With various states lowering some coronavirus restrictions from 1 June 2020, a quick look at how few flights are opearting on Sunday 31 May 2020 may be of interest.
MEL pretty much has a new low today.
There are only two scheduled passenger-carrying international flights: QF9 to LHR via PER at 1515 hours mid afternoon and QR905 at 2230 late tonight to DOH, probably with a connection to LHR. It must be extremely costly for an airport to keep its international terminal's lights and airconditioning/heating on for just two outbound flights (and a small number of inbounds).
Domestically, MEL has only 10 departures: JQ780 to ADL, JQ709 to HBA and JQ520 to SYD, plus QF773 to PER, QF1420 to CBR and SYD (which isn't always the same Q400 turboprop on both legs as one might expect) and QF482 to SYD, while VA has flights 321 to BNE, 689 to PER, 863 to SYD and another to BNE, VA341. There are no ZL flights that I can see. QF773 at 0935 hours was the first domestic for the day, so nothing at 0600, 0700 or even 0900.
12 departures for what is in usual times Australia's second busiest airport must be close to a new low.
SYD has five international departures showing: CZ326 to CAN, special working (and the second or third recent visit by this airline) SV3055 to of all places JED, UA870 to SFO, MF802 to XMN and lastly and very much on its own at 2230 tonight, QR909 to DOH. The first four planes are scheduled to depart between 1000 and 1115 hours, so again, the costs of keeping the departure area lit and heated for one flight 11 hours later must be immense, despite 'energy saving' light fittings in use. Notably my local Woolworths turns its lights off every night after 2200 and on again next morning around 0630, but in an airport setting with cleaners, security, some airline staff and others moving around even if there were no flights, this is probably impractical.
The first domestic flight ex SYD on Sun 31 May was JQ458 at 1200 'high noon.' I've checked: that appears to be correct, so not a single public departure for NSW intrastate or interstate on Sunday morning. Later is JQ770 to ADL, JQ810 to BNE and JQ525 to MEL (the final departure for any domestic airline at 1850 dinner time), plus QF1493 to CBR and MEL, and QF571 to PER, as well as VA846 to MEL and VA947 to BNE.
So SYD today has a mediocre total of five international and eight domestic departures making 13, beating MEL by one.
This excludes freighter aircraft (or passenger aircraft operating as freight-only, which I gather has been the case with QFi to places like PVG in recent weeks at times).
BNE strangely has only six domestic departures today of which five are VAd and one JQd. Amazingly, not a single QFd or ZL flight is showing. The timetable provides for VA2905 to GLT via BDB at 0800 this morning, VA609 to MKY at 1240 hours, VA328 and VA342 to MEL and VA970 to SYD plus JQ821 at 1800 hours (the final one for any domestic airline today) to SYD.
BNE has only two international departures for passengers today: NZ142 at 0935 hours for AKL and BR316 late tonight at 2215 hours for TPE, a nation (Taiwan) that's done extremely well thus far in combatting coronavirus as not trusting the mainland Chinese, Taiwan moved early and hard, shutting off access to this island that has a similar population to Australia.
So in total ex BNE, eight flights today, excluding freight ones.
PER was to have four international departures on Sunday 31 May but with QR900, the 2200 hours to DOH cancelled at 2200 tonight, it's down to three.
These are QG542 to DPS at 1430 hours, TR8 to SIN at 1700 and QF9 to MEL at 1715.
Domestically PER has 24 scheduled passenger flights today, making it by far the busiest in Oz, but 19 are for miners by the looks of them and presumably unavailable to the general public, with an amazing 15 to TEF that serves Newcrest's large Telfer copper and gold mine.
The 'public' ones are QF773 to MEL at 1145 hours, QF1629 to PHE at 1555, VA689 to MEL and QF1627 to ZNE both at 1840 and QF571 to SYD at 2115. The latter is odd because it would arrive in SYD prior to the 0600 hours curfew, even with the two hour time difference during non-daylight saving.
So for PER, three international 'public' departures and five domestic ones, total being eight.
ADL has four domestic departures but two of these are to the Olympic Dam mine. The 'public ones' are JQ763 to SYD at 1130 hours, and JQ775 to MEL at 1640 hours. So down to just two! QF, VA and ZL all appear to have the day off in serving ADL. One wonders what our wonderwoman, renowned Adelaidian asnd AFFer Pushka thinks.
There are no international departures that I can see ex ADL today.
CBR has no international departures and only two domestic Q400 turboprop ones (no B738s!) , QF1420 to SYD at 1550 hours mid afternoon and QF1493 in the evening at 1900 to MEL. So no planes departing (apart from RAAF ones for politcians, perhaps) before 1550 this afternoon.
I haven't checked every other day thus far during coronavirus but with the exception of pilots' strikes or the infamous 2011 QF lockout, today must be one of the lows in Australian aviation in the last 50 years for numbers of scheduled passenger departures.
This must be costing the airports (on which there's been little public attention because the media is fixated on struggling, near bankrupt Virgin and its administration that to me will end badly) a motza.
MEL pretty much has a new low today.
There are only two scheduled passenger-carrying international flights: QF9 to LHR via PER at 1515 hours mid afternoon and QR905 at 2230 late tonight to DOH, probably with a connection to LHR. It must be extremely costly for an airport to keep its international terminal's lights and airconditioning/heating on for just two outbound flights (and a small number of inbounds).
Domestically, MEL has only 10 departures: JQ780 to ADL, JQ709 to HBA and JQ520 to SYD, plus QF773 to PER, QF1420 to CBR and SYD (which isn't always the same Q400 turboprop on both legs as one might expect) and QF482 to SYD, while VA has flights 321 to BNE, 689 to PER, 863 to SYD and another to BNE, VA341. There are no ZL flights that I can see. QF773 at 0935 hours was the first domestic for the day, so nothing at 0600, 0700 or even 0900.
12 departures for what is in usual times Australia's second busiest airport must be close to a new low.
SYD has five international departures showing: CZ326 to CAN, special working (and the second or third recent visit by this airline) SV3055 to of all places JED, UA870 to SFO, MF802 to XMN and lastly and very much on its own at 2230 tonight, QR909 to DOH. The first four planes are scheduled to depart between 1000 and 1115 hours, so again, the costs of keeping the departure area lit and heated for one flight 11 hours later must be immense, despite 'energy saving' light fittings in use. Notably my local Woolworths turns its lights off every night after 2200 and on again next morning around 0630, but in an airport setting with cleaners, security, some airline staff and others moving around even if there were no flights, this is probably impractical.
The first domestic flight ex SYD on Sun 31 May was JQ458 at 1200 'high noon.' I've checked: that appears to be correct, so not a single public departure for NSW intrastate or interstate on Sunday morning. Later is JQ770 to ADL, JQ810 to BNE and JQ525 to MEL (the final departure for any domestic airline at 1850 dinner time), plus QF1493 to CBR and MEL, and QF571 to PER, as well as VA846 to MEL and VA947 to BNE.
So SYD today has a mediocre total of five international and eight domestic departures making 13, beating MEL by one.
This excludes freighter aircraft (or passenger aircraft operating as freight-only, which I gather has been the case with QFi to places like PVG in recent weeks at times).
BNE strangely has only six domestic departures today of which five are VAd and one JQd. Amazingly, not a single QFd or ZL flight is showing. The timetable provides for VA2905 to GLT via BDB at 0800 this morning, VA609 to MKY at 1240 hours, VA328 and VA342 to MEL and VA970 to SYD plus JQ821 at 1800 hours (the final one for any domestic airline today) to SYD.
BNE has only two international departures for passengers today: NZ142 at 0935 hours for AKL and BR316 late tonight at 2215 hours for TPE, a nation (Taiwan) that's done extremely well thus far in combatting coronavirus as not trusting the mainland Chinese, Taiwan moved early and hard, shutting off access to this island that has a similar population to Australia.
So in total ex BNE, eight flights today, excluding freight ones.
PER was to have four international departures on Sunday 31 May but with QR900, the 2200 hours to DOH cancelled at 2200 tonight, it's down to three.
These are QG542 to DPS at 1430 hours, TR8 to SIN at 1700 and QF9 to MEL at 1715.
Domestically PER has 24 scheduled passenger flights today, making it by far the busiest in Oz, but 19 are for miners by the looks of them and presumably unavailable to the general public, with an amazing 15 to TEF that serves Newcrest's large Telfer copper and gold mine.
The 'public' ones are QF773 to MEL at 1145 hours, QF1629 to PHE at 1555, VA689 to MEL and QF1627 to ZNE both at 1840 and QF571 to SYD at 2115. The latter is odd because it would arrive in SYD prior to the 0600 hours curfew, even with the two hour time difference during non-daylight saving.
So for PER, three international 'public' departures and five domestic ones, total being eight.
ADL has four domestic departures but two of these are to the Olympic Dam mine. The 'public ones' are JQ763 to SYD at 1130 hours, and JQ775 to MEL at 1640 hours. So down to just two! QF, VA and ZL all appear to have the day off in serving ADL. One wonders what our wonderwoman, renowned Adelaidian asnd AFFer Pushka thinks.
There are no international departures that I can see ex ADL today.
CBR has no international departures and only two domestic Q400 turboprop ones (no B738s!) , QF1420 to SYD at 1550 hours mid afternoon and QF1493 in the evening at 1900 to MEL. So no planes departing (apart from RAAF ones for politcians, perhaps) before 1550 this afternoon.
I haven't checked every other day thus far during coronavirus but with the exception of pilots' strikes or the infamous 2011 QF lockout, today must be one of the lows in Australian aviation in the last 50 years for numbers of scheduled passenger departures.
This must be costing the airports (on which there's been little public attention because the media is fixated on struggling, near bankrupt Virgin and its administration that to me will end badly) a motza.
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