Virgin Australia Delays/Cancellations

[esquire]

Melbourne is weather related… poor weather

amazingly every QF flights is leaving.... repeat of last weekend and staff shortages

 

[Harrison_133]

amazingly every QF flights is leaving....

Not quite.

Cancelled domestic departures from Melbourne so far today:

• Qantas: 8
• Virgin: 12
• Jetstar: 8
• Rex: 2

Quite a lot of delays to/from Melbourne also.

The only flights VA has cancelled so far today are to/from Melbourne.

 

[MooTime]

Just raining 25% of the day in Melb, light winds, hardly cyclonic weather, seen much much worse, I'd thought planes ok to fly in these conditions.

Maybe other factors.

 

[Harrison_133]

Just raining 25% of the day in Melb, light winds, hardly cyclonic weather, seen much much worse, I'd thought planes ok to fly in these conditions.

Maybe other factors.

Melbourne has a ground delay program in place all day.

 

[MooTime]

Melbourne has a ground delay program in place all day.

so why 12 cancellations then, but is 12 cancellations in a day close to normal? i'd guess it's bit higher so why higher on a generally mundane day like today, few showers etc?

 

[Harrison_133]

so why 12 cancellations then, but is 12 cancellations in a day close to normal? i'd guess it's bit higher so why higher on a generally mundane day like today, few showers etc?

The flow rate of arrivals and departures is reduced, so there is less runway capacity available to cater for the number of flights that are scheduled.

Hence all the delays and why airlines need to cancel flights to recover the schedule.

 

[Doddler]

The flow rate of arrivals and departures is reduced, so there is less runway capacity available to cater for the number of flights that are scheduled.

Hence all the delays and why airlines need to cancel flights to recover the schedule.

Why is there a ground delay program in place all day though. The weather really isn't all that bad. There's not even a severe weather warning in place for Melbourne.

 

[Melburnian1]

Melbourne has a ground delay program in place all day.

Doesn't say much for the aviation subsector when the weather is basically benign: cloud cover but no fog or heavy rain.

In such conditions, high speed rail operates seamlessly worldwide.

 

[Harrison_133]

Why is there a ground delay program in place all day though. The weather really isn't all that bad. There's not even a severe weather warning in place for Melbourne.

According to the latest Air Traffic Flow Management Daily Plan updated as of 12:55pm today:

Weather impact risk assessment - Melbourne - PM Friday: Showers, drizzle. Slight chance of thunderstorms N TMA. Cloud 1000- 2000ft, lower in showers/drizzle. Moderate S to SE winds, lighter late evening.

GDP Notes - Melbourne: Risk of LVP's in early morning, showers throughout the day. Heavily constrained GDP through until finish at 1600 UTC.
Midday Update: BRIEF DETAIL: Showers, drizzle. Cloud 800-2000ft. S to SE winds. ATC ADVICE: 432 (213A/219D) movements remaining. Level 2 revision run at 0130z to account for schedule variation and associated airborne delays. GDP remains in effect until 1600z with average ground delays well above 2 hours.

 

[Melburnian1]

Only a "risk" of low visibility procedures and only in the already passed 'early morning', yet 'ground delays' later said to be 'well above two hours'.

From a quick look on FR24, quite a lot of flights in and out of MEL are delayed by between 45 and 90 minutes for estimated landing times (which doesn't include taxiing to gate) but even allowing for exaggeration in the 'Daily Plan' above, it's shockingly poor punctuality for weather that's hardly unusual.

 

[Harrison_133]

Given the delays into Melbourne today attracted some attention, I've compiled some data to put things into perspective. In the interests of time, I've only put together domestic departures from Melbourne. Flights are counted as on-time if they departed before 15 minutes after the departure time.

02 Oct 26	Scheduled:	On-Time:	Delayed:	Cancelled:
Jetstar:	69	11	45	13
Link:	2	0	2	0
Qantas:	101	33	57	11
Rex:	11	1	7	3
Virgin:	100	21	66	13