Qantas international tech issues

[Flyerqf]

Qantas has had several of issues on international flights this last week.

QF8 diverted to LAX due to technical issue with VH-OEF on 16 March, resulting in a 24 hour delay.

QF8 was again delayed by 24 hours when VH-OEI was unserviceable in Dallas on 21 March.

QF63 due to depart yesterday was delayed 24 hours due to VH-OJC being unserviceable. QF64 will also be delayed as a result.

Today's QF11 is delayed until tomorrow due to A380 VH-OQL being unserviceable. This will result in a delay to the QF12 service.

 

[Awesom Andy]

Definitely annoying, but that's life in aviation.

 

[Simo]

Prefer to have tech issues on the ground than tech issues in the sky.

QF8 glad they could make LAX and that they where not stuck some where over the pacific ocean

 

[mannej]

I guess you feel the delays much more with the diminishing international fleet, however these things do happen

 

[docjames]

It's also a bigger issue further away from home as substitute aircraft and crews may not be readily available.

 

[RooFlyer]

<snip>

Today's QF11 is delayed until tomorrow due to A380 VH-OQL being unserviceable. This will result in a delay to the QF12 service.

I'm on QF12 ex LAX 25th March; Flight Aware not showing any delay to QF11 today. Any chance of your getting update from your source, please? (Which I'm not doubting is more accurate than FA.)

 

[madrooster]

QF11 ex-SYD 25/03 isn't delayed so QF12 ex-LAX 25/03 should be fine (at this stage). QF11 24/03 has been delayed until 12pm 25/03 however, so ex-LAX 24/03 is the one delayed.

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks. Ah, yes, I didn't notice that FA skipped QF11 for the 24th!

 

[Isochronous]

It's also the problem of having such a high average fleet age.

 

[mannej]

It's also the problem of having such a high average fleet age.

OJC is really the only bird significantly over 10 years in the list supplied by the OP

 

[under the radar]

It's also the problem of having such a high average fleet age.

i suppose when you just HAVE to FIND something to complain about...you clutch at any old straw!!! so would you apply this to the AIRLINE wide disruptions caused by the 787 groundings?? ...also i will say that QF do utilize their a/c to achieve max 'air' time, therefore max revenue earning potential..paired with the shrinkage of the 744 fleet..it seems to 'magnify' the situation..when one disruption occurs..there's a flow on effect for a couple of days, usually to one route..but when 2 or 3 disruptions occur at the same time..it will be felt more across more routes ..but usually just for a couple of days with some 'tweaking' of schedules
airlines are exposed to many influences that can affect their schedules....manmade and naturemade...yes..it's a PITA..and we always need to find something/someone to blame to make us 'feel better'....but we can't control EVERYTHING...that's life!!

 

[madrooster]

i will say that QF do utilize their a/c to achieve max 'air' time, therefore max revenue earning potential..paired with the shrinkage of the 744 fleet..it seems to 'magnify' the situation

I would beg to differ - the A380s sit in LHR and LAX all day for a good 15 hours. The only A380 service that turns around in a reasonable time is QF127/128.

 

[Awesom Andy]

When you are all the way out in DFW, nothing will save you from an extended disruption. Even if they have a spare aircraft back home, and they send it out immediately (assuming they can find the necessary crew straight away), it's still going to be a good 16 hours before it'll get there.

 

[CaviAck]

When you are all the way out in DFW, nothing will save you from an extended disruption. Even if they have a spare aircraft back home, and they send it out immediately (assuming they can find the necessary crew straight away), it's still going to be a good 16 hours before it'll get there.

Thought they had spare 747s that can do that hop stationed in LAX or NYC. QF107/108 can be turned around and the 747s coming in from BNE and SYD to LAX can also be shuffled. Or doesn't it work that way?

They could re-route pax on one of the LAX-SYD flights (QF108 or QF12) to the other LAX-SYD flight and if there's not enough seats re-route volunteers or compensate to fly on QF94 to MEL or QF16 to BNE and transfer on a domestic flight. High domestic frequencies between MEL and BNE to SYD should cover needed seats or they could reposition a 737 to do a charter flight.

 

[straitman]

Thought they had spare 747s that can do that hop stationed in LAX or NYC. QF107/108 can be turned around and the 747s coming in from BNE and SYD to LAX can also be shuffled. Or doesn't it work that way?

They could re-route pax on one of the LAX-SYD flights (QF108 or QF12) to the other LAX-SYD flight and if there's not enough seats re-route volunteers or compensate to fly on QF94 to MEL or QF16 to BNE and transfer on a domestic flight. High domestic frequencies between MEL and BNE to SYD should cover needed seats or they could reposition a 737 to do a charter flight.

Not all the aircraft can operate the SYD-DFW route due to the distance.

 

[madrooster]

Thought they had spare 747s that can do that hop stationed in LAX or NYC. QF107/108 can be turned around and the 747s coming in from BNE and SYD to LAX can also be shuffled. Or doesn't it work that way?

They only have 6 747ER's which can possibly do the DFW run which makes it difficult in the event the issue is at DFW. But in the case of the most recent QF8 issue, yes they could re-route pax due to them being in LAX.

A number of QF8 pax transfer to domestic at BNE anyway, they could've re-routed such pax via other routes, eg. MEL-bound pax could've been put on QF94, SYD-bound on QF12/108, ADL-bound on 16/12/108/94 and so forth.

Generally if there is an issue however they will turn around the next inbound aircraft as soon as possible (with the broken aircraft's crew) and send that plane straight back.

 

[CaviAck]

Not all the aircraft can operate the SYD-DFW route due to the distance.

Yeah just realised they don't have that many 747ER's, and thus the odds of one sitting in LOTFAP not that high.

 

[madrooster]

Yeah just realised they don't have that many 747ER's, and thus the odds of one sitting in LOTFAP not that high.

The chances of one sitting there at the sort of times where QF8 may divert is virtually zero. They would've left AU-bound by the time QF8 makes it to LAX (most recent issue had QF8 land in LAX at 1am).

Now if it were a QF7 diversion things might be a little different but I suspect the crew would run out of duty hours in such a diversion so the pax would probably be re-routed onto AA flights.

 

[docjames]

Not all the aircraft can operate the SYD-DFW route due to the distance.

They could stop in NAN, AKL or similar (crew hours etc depending.....)

 

[Flyerqf]

Delayed 24/3 QF12 service was eventually cancelled. VH-OQE is still at LAX.