Update
Qantas has deployed a recovery flight from Australia to assist customers who are disrupted in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The recovery flight, which is being operated by an Airbus A380, departed Sydney at 1140am this morning for Baku Airport. The aircraft will then pick up customers at Baku Airport and continue on to London. It is expected to arrive at Heathrow early on Christmas morning.
The aircraft operating the recovery flight is one of the operational spares that Qantas has on standby over the holiday season to help recover customers in the event of an unexpected disruption like this. Having these aircraft and additional pilots and cabin crew on standby has provided flexibility to operate the recovery flight at short notice and minimise the disruption to customers.
Qantas would like to thank the Australian Government and seven foreign governments for urgently processing the necessary flight path approvals for this one-off recovery flight.
Qantas engineers are travelling from London and Sydney to inspect the A380 currently on the ground in Baku with a suspected faulty sensor in the cargo hold.
We know this has been a significant disruption for customers ahead of Christmas, however we will always put safety before schedule. We have apologised and thank them for their patience while we finalised the recovery plans. They have spent the night at the Marriott Hotel and been provided meals and transport. We’re providing regular updates to customers on the recovery plan.
We’d also like to thank the pilots and crew who operated the disrupted service for their professionalism and their support to customers.
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