Melburnian1
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
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On Monday 6 July, QF2 ex SIN (A388 VH-OQD) arrived at its SYD gate at 0606 hours, 56 minutes late.
QF 29 on QPH took off at 1209 and ETA according to QF site - the now arrival time is 1910 instead of 1755 - this will mean BOTH return flights from HKG WILL be delayed - it is by how muchIn another A330 QFi delay on Monday 6 July, A333 VH-QPL on the 1020 hours SYD-SIN QF81 was only in the early stage of taxiing in Sydney as at 1151 hours.
Sister -QPC, @tomlee1986 , should arrive HKG on QF127 (ex SYD) at about 1838 hours in the early evening, 43 minutes late as it took off at 1126.
Flagship QF1, the 1445 hours SYD-SIN-LHR is expected to depart half an hour late.
UPDATE: QF81 was airborne at 1206 hours with SIN gate arrival likely at around 1840 hours, 105 minutes behind schedule.
I wonder are these QF A330 delays for overworked and aging aircraft?? with 4 A333 delayed like this - I know 2 are midlife ones but QPC and QPD are over 20 years oldIn more on Monday 6 July, QF59 (1115 hours SYD-HND) was in the sky at 1217 with A333 VH-QPD, so anticipated gate arrival becomes 2053 hours, 43 late.
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I wonder are these QF A330 delays for overworked and aging aircraft?? with 4 A333 delayed like this - I know 2 are midlife ones but QPC and QPD are over 20 years old
I won’t suggest they are unsafe but to have A333 fleet having major delays like this in multiple cities in both SYD and MEL - looks like maintenance related as well as other factors involvedLogically, the ageing fleet cannot be helping. Alan Joyce once mentioned '30 years' as the lifespan IIRC but looking at other operators' fleets, especially in Asia, this doesn't strike me as typical: many airlines replace aircraft with new models prior to reaching the 20 year milestone.
Even one of the leased aircraft from Finnair, A333 VH-QPK, is 16.5 years old.
QFi's class leader VH-QPA is four months short of its 23rd birthday.
The QFi schedules by and large don't have much 'leeway' or 'redundancy' in them: no spares. based in SYD.
No one is suggesting QFi's aircraft are unsafe, but internal fittings in many cases have had a lot of wear'n'tear.
Perhaps some of the A330 QFi daily delays are due to waiting for connecting passengers from ports such as ADL, HBA, LST and rural NSW that have minimal or no QFi scheduled flights. However there are so many delays, some must be maintenance-related.
