United Airlines Delays/Cancellations

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

For the second time in three days today, UA99 was late, taking off at 1434 this afternoon (1 November 2015), almost three hours late.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

UA98 from LAX to MEL is arriving at 1048 on Monday 16 November in lieu of 0925. The 1125 departure of UA99 back to LAX is showing as delayed until 1200 but that may be an underestimate - 1220 or so may be a better guess.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

UA generally has good punctuality on its Australian routes with its planes often beating QF into SYD or MEL in the mornings. However today (Saturday 11 December) UA99, the 1125 from MEL to LAX is delayed until a forecast 1315 in its departure.

UA870, the 1430 hours SYD to SFO today has been cancelled.

 

[jb747]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Over the last couple of days two United flights have diverted to, and terminated at, Honolulu.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

jb747, many thanks. I assume that one of them was the aircraft that should have formed UA840 ex SYD for LAX yesterday (Saturday 2 January 2016) as the Sydney Airport website indicates that yesterday's departure was cancelled.

Do you know why they did not operate beyond HNL?

It would be good to hear from any AFF readers who were booked on these flights or who otherwise know what happened to passengers. Were they placed on HL, JQ or QF flights nonstop down to Oz, or did they have to take a 'scenic route' such as via NRT? It is an unfortunate time of the year to be 'short terminated' at a location such as HNL because with Christmas holidays, one might expect the other carriers' flights to be full or close to it.

These unexpected events may have been encountered previously by most airlines but that does not mean that working out how to get stranded passengers to their booked destination would not be stressful for the operations staff. It's not as if they can just ring a road coach company as an interstate coach or rail operator can, and have buses at most locations within a couple of hours at most!

And then there's the problem of a multi-million dollar aircraft not where it should be, not to mention tech and cabin crew in (this case) HNL and SYD plus MEL, catering askew in say SYD...all adversely affecting future rotations or rosters, and at the absolute minimum a few hundred other delayed passengers booked from Oz to the USA. And then the airline has to find a crew to take the aircraft back to LAX or SFO, or wherever it is next sent.

The cost of such events must rapidly exceed a couple of hundred thousand dollars: miniscule compared to the larger international airlines' revenues, but unwelcome to the beancounters. Also very complex!

 

[Deleted member 24491]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

AV Herald has information in relation to UA863 on 2 January - Incident: United B772 over Pacific Ocean on Dec 31st 2015, smoke in coughpit, bird strike on touch down

 

[jb747]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

The other one was medical, and then the crew ran out of hours.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

From a quick check, not one Australian media outlet - print, online or broadcast - appears to have reported the 'smoke in coughpit' incident above.

This may be symptomatic of how at least one specialist aviation reporter has left 'The Australian' (News Ltd) and others who cover the subject at say Fairfax are presumably on holidays. Some AFFers with an unfavourable view of the media in general may have a 'less generous' view. Obviously they have to know about it to report it, and the above 'Aviation Herald' report (not a mainstream publication) seems to be the only writeup.

As other AFFers have noted in relation to previous aviation safety-related occurrences, if this happened to an Australian domiciled airline (JQ, QF, TT, VA or even ZL) it would often make headlines right around Australia.

And yet one assumes that because the UA plane was flying from SFO to SYD, many Australians would have been on board. It looks like not one of them has contributed a Facebook post, or rung or texted an Australian media outlet.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

UA863 from SFO to SYD is expected to arrive at about 0935, an hour late. Aircraft is B772 N223UA.

UA839 from LAX to SYD (N217UA) is about 45 minutes behind time and should be at the gate at approximately 0930 hours.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

UA863 (B772 N209UA) from SFO arrived in SYD on Tuesday 12 January at about 0930 hours, 55 minutes late.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

UA98 meant to arrive in MEL on Wednesday 13 January ex LAX and the return UA99 have been cancelled.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

UA98 from LAX to MEL on Thursday 25 February will arrive an hour late at 1025.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

UA2181 - is this a renumbered ordinary flight due to late running or a special such as a charter - took off from MEL on Friday 26 February at 1437 despite a departure time of 1030. LAX arrival of B789 N19951 should be at about 0850 hours (same day) instead of 0605.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

UA863 arriving in SYD on Monday 14 March ex SFO will be about 75 minutes late: it is normally due at 0835.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

The Tuesday 15 March UA863 (2230 hours from SFO to SYD) was airborne at 0057 on Wednesday 16 March. As a result B772ER N224UA should arrive at about 1000, two hours and 35 minutes late. It is in a holding pattern to the west of Cessnock NSW.

As UA870 back to SFO is a 1330 hours departure in theory - touch wood - it should be unaffected by the late arrival.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

The Friday 18 March 2016 arrival of UA98 (operated by B789 N29981) will be significantly delayed (if it makes it at all) as this LAX - MEL flight is diverting to HNL due to a 'maintenance issue' according to FR24. It will be interesting to see if it is cancelled between HNL and MEL. The change has yet to be reflected on the Melbourne Airport website.

The flight back ex MEL tomorrow morning (UA99, the 0925 hours to LAX) will obviously be affected. I'd check with the airline now as to what one should do if travelling: staff may ask you to still come to the airport at the normal time (and perhaps be rebooked on another airline if UA does this), delay your arrival at the airport or not come at all for 24 hours if a Melbourne resident.

UPDATE: The Friday 18 March arriving UA98 and departing UA99 in MEL have been cancelled.

UA839 from LAX is about to arrive in SYD at 1000 on Friday 18, two and a quarter hours late.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

On Sunday 17 April, UA870 (1030 SYD - SFO, aircraft B789 N36962) took off at 1052 but appears to be about to land back in SYD at just before 1300 hours.

Does anyone know why it has returned to its originating airport? Urgent medical diversion, or technical problem?

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

An article has just appeared on 'The Age' and 'Sydney Morning Herald' websites indicating that 'an unusual odour' was detected in the cabin with the (tech) crew electing to return the aircraft to SYD for a maintenance check. To borrow from an expression recently used by one of our esteemed contributors, that is probably 'good airmanship.'

UA870 had 238 passengers on board who will now be enjoying time on the ground back in Sydney (Australia not Canada.) That is an excellent load factor as there are only 252 seats in a UA B789, but as always one does not know how much the median amount per seat fare was paid (the yield.) The latter is more important than the actual posterior count on board.

The revamped https://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps/travel/flightstatus/results.aspx indicates that departure will be three and a half hours late but if taken from its originally scheduled departure time of 1030 hours, that would be 1400 hours which is not realistic as the plane only returned to SYD at 1301 hours this afternoon.

As is far too often the case, www.sydneyairport.com.au flight arrivals and departures has not been updated to reflect how the UA SFO-bound flight had returned to SYD. This is one feature where the www.melair.com.au website tends to be ahead of Sydney Airport's online effort.

UPDATE: The flight was cancelled by 1630 on Sunday 17 April. There is no information as to when it might again depart from SYD.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Following Sunday 17 April's return of the SYD - SFO aircraft to SYD due to the 'odiour' - see above, it appears that United operated an extra flight ex SYD on Monday 18 April to SFO, departing Australia at 1230 this afternoon as UA2064.

Confirmation that this is correct from other AFF members would be appreciated.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General United Airlines Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

UA98 (B789 N45956) should arrive in MEL at about 0808 on Saturday 21 May, 43 minutes late. On Thursday 19 may it had been airborne at 2316 ex LAX despite its 2225 hours pushback time.