Qantas Project Sunrise goes ahead, 12 new A350-1000s ordered

[Melburnian1]

They actually explained this, it's to mitigate congestion delays.

Later in the morning they're more likely to face holding - landing that early they've got the best chance of not being held up.

Holding times vary, but if it's the case QFi is 'worried' (as you said elsewhere) about a possible 20 minute holding pattern approaching London Heathrow, then that underlines what a risky endeavour PS is.. Pushing the envelope a little too close for comfort.

Perhaps unusually given summer, about four days ago there was heavy fog at LHR with 1,000 flights disrupted.

It will be fascinating to see if QF1 or whatever flight number it's allocated ever has to divert, meaning a 24 hour delay given pilots and cabin crew would have to rest overnight.

 

[elanshin]

Holding times vary, but if it's the case QFi is 'worried' (as you said elsewhere) about a possible 20 minute holding pattern approaching London Heathrow, then that underlines what a risky endeavour PS is.. Pushing the envelope a little too close for comfort.

Perhaps unusually given summer, about four days ago there was heavy fog at LHR with 1,000 flights disrupted.

It will be fascinating to see if QF1 or whatever flight number it's allocated ever has to divert, meaning a 24 hour delay given pilots and cabin crew would have to rest overnight.

Wouldn't a "low fuel" call shoot them up the priority list.

 

[justinbrett]

Holding times vary, but if it's the case QFi is 'worried' (as you said elsewhere) about a possible 20 minute holding pattern approaching London Heathrow, then that underlines what a risky endeavour PS is.. Pushing the envelope a little too close for comfort.

Perhaps unusually given summer, about four days ago there was heavy fog at LHR with 1,000 flights disrupted.

It will be fascinating to see if QF1 or whatever flight number it's allocated ever has to divert, meaning a 24 hour delay given pilots and cabin crew would have to rest overnight.

Not worried in terms of safety of flight, worried in terms of chance of diversion. Remember when QF8 was a 747? That happened a lot.

I'm sure there will be diversions. But I'm not sure the chance is any higher than QF9 or QF4. It could even be less. QF9 and QF4 are both crack of dawn arrivals so also mitigate congestion.

Wouldn't a "low fuel" call shoot them up the priority list.

You still need to carry the prescribed holding fuel. You can't just rock up and say "I've come a long way".

Now, they could request some sort of special requirement status (before departure) which grants them priority, but I'm not sure they'd get it.

 

[oz_mark]

You still need to carry the prescribed holding fuel. You can't just rock up and say "I've come a long way".

Now, they could request some sort of special requirement status (before departure) which grants them priority, but I'm not sure they'd get it.

I'm sure they've learnt a few things from the 787 flights, but I imagine that you'd pretty much have to declare an emergency to get up the priority list.

 

[Melburnian1]

Another (hopefully rare) difficulty will be if there's a medical diversion required.

Again, a 24 hour delay is the probable result.

 

[justinbrett]

Yeh, OK you've got me. Yes, 'm being somewhat selective, I could only find 14 AA arrivals before 9am , and another 5 between 9 and 10., and probably a few more AS flights to boot. And not every ticket is issued with AA connectors. I've travelled a plenty on mix and match interlines bookings such as SQ/AA, QF/UA .

(East) Asia works better as you're travelling at similar latitudes - shorter flights that cover more time zones. In winter, it's a 5 hour jump from local time take off to local time arrival to Japan - to Sydney it's 10 hours. So even a 0900 departure (which would rule out connecting arrivals after 0730) would land at SYD at 1900, and at that time of night the only connections left are MEL & BNE (who have their own direct flights).

A day time flight to BNE is probably the most suitable, as in winter it's a hour behind, and it's a slightly shorter flight.