Middle East Airspace Diversions/Cancellations

[Harrison_133]

Qatar are positioning 4 777s to Brisbane today from MEL, PER and SYD for what appears to be storage.

 

[LionKing]

Qatar are positioning 4 777s to Brisbane today from MEL, PER and SYD for what appears to be storage.

Here's one of them.

Meanwhile, I don't understand why QF is not upping PER-CDG to A380 or push PER-FCO for early start to seize the huge demand for Australian travellers to go to Europe at the moment.

Wouldn't it will work with scrapping MEL/BNE-LAX and terminate JFK service at AKL instead of continuing into SYD would have freed up some planes to make it happen?

QF3/4 can use B738 for SYD-AKL leg instead?

 

[I love to travel]

Qatar are positioning 4 777s to Brisbane today from MEL, PER and SYD for what appears to be storage.

They ME have to use every bit of their goodwill and get established Asian airports to become hubs for the Kangaroo route and European airports for Africa routes. I don't see how they fix ME to Europe but at least it will give them some flying, Sure they are competitors but if this drags on, they might not have a viable airline for a while. So they should be working together to keep things going as best they can for as many planes as they can

 

[RooFlyer]

Qatar are positioning 4 777s to Brisbane today from MEL, PER and SYD for what appears to be storage.

That would be a strange destination for storage, wouldn't it? Being damp and all that. Maybe temp until they get ?ASP sorted?

 

[Rembrandt]

They ME have to use every bit of their goodwill and get established Asian airports to become hubs for the Kangaroo route and European airports for Africa routes. I don't see how they fix ME to Europe but at least it will give them some flying, Sure they are competitors but if this drags on, they might not have a viable airline for a while. So they should be working together to keep things going as best they can for as many planes as they can

The problem the airlines will be dealing with very soon is the supply supply of jet fuel. Many airlines could go under due to this war. In the short term finding alternative hubs is a bit of an afterthought.
<redacted>

 

[MELso]

You mean under EU261, or otherwise? QR not being a European carrier, and all that ,I wouldn't think had obligation under 261 for an itinerary originating out of Europe.

EU261 applies to non-EU carriers where the journey originates in the EU.

 

[transpactraveller]

Qatar are positioning 4 777s to Brisbane today from MEL, PER and SYD for what appears to be storage.

If only they were on better terms with Qantas to wetlease a few of them like the Finnair deal.

Brisbane does seem an odd choice of places to store them.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

You mean under EU261, or otherwise? QR not being a European carrier, and all that ,I wouldn't think had obligation under 261 for an itinerary originating out of Europe.

In the context of the post I was replying to, and as referenced above by MELso, eu/uk261 will apply for award seats issued by VA on QR departures from the UK/EU.

And QR is honouring those requirements.

 

[RooFlyer]

In the context of the post I was replying to

Thanks - just wanted to make sure, for my own benefit. Never had to contemplate rights wrt cancelled international flights before.

 

[justinbrett]

Brisbane does seem an odd choice of places to store them.

I doubt it's long term storage. I'm sure they could do that much cheaper closer to home.

There's a lot of engineering capability and hangars at BNE so for a short-medium term stay (< 1-2 months) it makes a lot of sense to me.

 

[offshore171]

Lots of GPS spoofing going on.

EK6 from London is showing as deep inside Iran.

 

[AuSammy]

That would be a strange destination for storage, wouldn't it? Being damp and all that. Maybe temp until they get ?ASP sorted?

Looking at the possible fuel scenarios and push comes to shove, ASP has a higher chance of running out/limitations before BNE.

And maintenance can be done at BNE if required.

 

[AIRwin]

Looks like Teruel is expecting more QR aircrafts later today for storage on top of the already ferried aircrafts from Doha to Teruel yesterday .

This is not looking good...

View attachment 500818

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/remote-spanish-airport-again-becomes-parking-lot-planes-this-time-due-iran-war-2026-03-20/

 

[transpactraveller]

QF331 operating tonight SIN LHR

Haven't seen Qantas talk this one up in the media yet, is it a charter?

 

[MELso]

Looks like EK has extended its restricted schedule to/from Australia to ~1 May.

 

[Aeryn]

One of my best mates sister and her husband are retiring to France, they had QR tickets booked for next week (SYD-DOH-CDG) for 2 adults in J and 1 elderly cat in the hold (booked directly with QR).

With limited flights QR said they could no longer take pets for foreseeable future, so kitty is now on QF SYD-PER-CDG and hubby is now on CX SYD-HKG-CDG next week arriving within hours of each other and the sister is now flying a week later BA SYD-SIN-LHR-CDG both still in J.

Friend said QR had arranged the new routing, but if they had insisted on all flying together on same flight they would have had to wait weeks for QF availability due to the kitty (which we both think they should have just rehomed as is really old and unlikely to do well on the trip).

So being flexible helps and it seems QR will help rebook but maybe more helpful for those who booked directly with them rather than via VA or QF or a travel agent. Im not sure of their status and whether that was a factor.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

One of my best mates sister and her husband are retiring to France, they had QR tickets booked for next week (SYD-DOH-CDG) for 2 adults in J and 1 elderly cat in the hold (booked directly with QR).

With limited flights QR said they could no longer take pets for foreseeable future, so kitty is now on QF SYD-PER-CDG and hubby is now on CX SYD-HKG-CDG next week arriving within hours of each other and the sister is now flying a week later BA SYD-SIN-LHR-CDG bot still i J.

Friend said QR had arranged the new routing, if they had insisted on all flying together on same flight they would have had to wait weeks for QF availability due to the kitty (which we both think they should have just rehomed as is really old and unlikely to do well on the trip). So being flexible helps and it seems QR will help rebook but maybe more helpful for those who booked directly with them rather than via VA or QF or a travel agent.

That’s good news!

Yeah, booking directly here is the key. Otherwise they say on their homepage you need to go back to your travel agent, which in the cases you mentioned is either VA or QF.

Getting VA - unless you have platinum plus - to help you might be a challenge.

 

[jasrulz63]

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case if the flight is booked via a VA reward seat...

Someone on Reddit got their VA reward seat re-routed by contacting QR. VA were supposedly totally useless in this regard.

 

[Quickstatus]

Qatar are positioning 4 777s to Brisbane today from MEL,

Also sending some aircraft to TEV (Spain)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Looking at various forums today it seems confirmed that QR *is* rerouting passengers once their flights are officially cancelled.

There are two avenues here. If cancelled within 10 days of departure, you can call and get a re-route on their Tier 1 partners (including some oneworld partners). Once you get within the 48 hour window, they are re-routing regardless of tier 1 (so any available).

This applies to the entire QR network, not just flights leaving the EU.

There is of course then a third option, with is departures ex EU, which probably comes with stronger protections than the ‘within-48-hours’ policy above.

Also reports emerging that some airlines are no longer participating in the QR re-routes, and are restricting sales of seats to direct bookings only. I’m guessing there is some sort of special IATA pricing for re-reroutes which airlines are now trying to circumvent?

So it seems even if you have a flight ex AU, once it’s officially cancelled, get on to QR for your re-route. A post on Reddit confirmed a QR booking for ADL-DOH-FCO was re-routed ADL-SYD-PEK-FCO on Air China.

That’s still not going to apply to VA flights to DOH