What was the reason for the delay for QF25 today?

[alect]

I was looking at FlightStats regarding upcoming QF25 segments, and saw its poor on-time rating, but overabove today's flight was almost 10 hrs delayed. The info said:


Departure Arrival Recorded Scheduled Actual Runway Gate Scheduled Actual Runway Gate 03:44 AM 12:45 PM 09:09 PM 09:20 PM
06:00 PM 02:30 AM

6.ENTIRE FLT- 15/ IN-SEAT VIDEO PLAYER/LIBRARY
3.MEL AKL - ARRIVES TERMINAL I
they didn't really hold up the flight 12 hrs due to faulty IFE did they? Not a good omen.

Further question - does anyone know what incoming flight or a/c turns around in MEL to become QF25? Is it QF26? In which case we're in trouble b/c Jan 2 QF25 would turn around and become QF26 in LAX and thus be late into MEL on Jan 4 thereby guaranteeing that we will have a delay.

 

[Mal]

I think the IFE comment in your text is regarding the onboard services, not a delay reason.

The Qantas website shows the flight as:

QF25 Auckland 12:45 21:09 Departed

So a nice delay of just over 8 hours.

There is no guarantee to say which flight turns into QF25. You need one of the plane spotting experts to give you some advice on that.

Someone with more knowledge about why it was delayed may add more to my reply. But basically I'd predict that the plane went unserviceable for some reason, and they had no spare planes easily available to replace it at such short notice - or resolving whatever issue was found took longer than they initially expected.

 

[Wunala Dreaming]

Hello,

One can only speculate as to the reason for the delay, but it could be anything from urgent maintenance requirments, fuel leak, electrical problems, engine issues etc. The aircraft in question is VH-OJC, of course also know as "City of Melbourne" (this aircraft operated QF26 LAX-AKL-MEL today and turned around to operate the very delayed QF25 back to AKL/LAX).

Qantas is about to release one of it's 2-class 747-400s back into service after it's recent AVOD upgrade, so it could operate QF 25 on THU 4 JAN reducing any significant delays to just today's MEL-AKL-LAX and the return flight back (LAX-AKL-MEL: arrival on 4 FEB [Scheduled depart from LAX 2 JAN]). While I am guessing the above, I wouldn't be surprised if this happened. Qantas is good with positioning aircraft and switching flights in order to contend with delays.

The aircraft that operates QF26 LAX-AKL-MEL usually always turns around and operates the outbound QF25 flight back to Los Angeles (the aircraft may then go on to operate something like LAX-BNE-LAX-BNE-LAX-AKL-MEL). The following example is pretty much what happens. VH-OJD (eg) operates QF26 LAX-AKL-MEL, arrives into MEL in morning, spends hrs on ground, prepped, before flying QF25 back to Los Angeles. Sometimes this is not always the case, and the following occured on December 23 2006:

VH-OJK    QF10    LHR-SIN-MEL (Arrives MEL on 23 DEC)
VH-OJK    QF25    MEL-AKL-LAX (Departs MEL on 23 DEC)

and then..

VH-OJM    QF26    LAX-AKL-MEL (Arrives MEL on 23 DEC)
VH-OJM    QF09    MEL-SIN-LHR (Departs MEL on 23 DEC)

Aircraft may also be sourced from other ports (to operate MEL-AKL-LAX) such as SYD and AVV (where they may fly repositioning flights/revenue pax (not AVV) flights from), but normally the aircraft that operates QF26 into Melbourne, will be the aircraft that operates QF25 back to Auckland and Los Angeles.

Once again, until something is officially confirmed, we can only speculate as to the reasons for the 8 hour delay. Perhaps though, someone from Qantas or pax from QF25 may be able to give some more information as to why there was a delay.

Unless the IFE system/wiring was likely to cause an accident, I very much doubt Qantas would delay a flight by 8 hrs, just to make it reliable. Mal is correct in saying that the tag mentioned means that the flight has IFE on offer.

Hope that helps (and makes sense :?. I've just released the Plane Spotter in me!

Cheers

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Its due to leave AKL shortly, some 12 hours late. Any through pax have had a 5 hour early morning transit at AKL - nasty.

The return flight is currently down as 3.5 hour late departure from LAX.

 

[serfty]

...

VH-OJK    QF10    LHR-SIN-MEL (Arrives MEL on 23 DEC)
VH-OJK    QF25    MEL-AKL-LAX (Departs MEL on 23 DEC)

and then..

VH-OJM    QF26    LAX-AKL-MEL (Arrives MEL on 23 DEC)
VH-OJM    QF09    MEL-SIN-LHR (Departs MEL on 23 DEC)

...

Nice surprise for those in 1/2/3/4-A/K on QF25/26 having a true lie flat bed ...

 

[Wunala Dreaming]

Good to see VH-OJE (with alect aboard) pushed back from MEL today as QF25 to AKL and LAX only 8 minutes behind schedule!

As I said alect, Qantas is very good at fixing aircraft scheduling issues/concerns (even when a few aircraft may be out of service for AVOD upgrade/mx etc). Your aircraft operated QF6 into SYD this morning and was specially flown to MEL (QF6004) from SYD in order to operate your flight today.

Here's hoping you had a good flight and hopefully the AVOD (AVOiD) system didn't cause you any grief.

And no need to mention why VH-OJC was delayed in MEL on the 2nd, as you already know the reason why

serfty, it sure would be a nice + pleasant surprise. I have noted that this has happened with QF175/6 BNE-LAX-BNE rather recently too!

Cheers,
Wunala Dreaming

 

[alect]

Good to see VH-OJE (with alect aboard) pushed back from MEL today as QF25 to AKL and LAX only 8 minutes behind schedule!

As I said alect, Qantas is very good at fixing aircraft scheduling issues/concerns (even when a few aircraft may be out of service for AVOD upgrade/mx etc). Your aircraft operated QF6 into SYD this morning and was specially flown to MEL (QF6004) from SYD in order to operate your flight today.

Here's hoping you had a good flight and hopefully the AVOD (AVOiD) system didn't cause you any grief.

And no need to mention why VH-OJC was delayed in MEL on the 2nd, as you already know the reason why

serfty, it sure would be a nice + pleasant surprise. I have noted that this has happened with QF175/6 BNE-LAX-BNE rather recently too!

Cheers,
Wunala Dreaming

yes - it was indeed 2 class 744 with AVOD. No problems MEL-AKL (but load was light - 8pax UD only), while we did have problems AKL-LAX requiring a couple of resets - I think CSM should be renamed CIFER (Chief IFE Resetter) as that's what they mainly end up doing . The IFE was going fine but then for some people selecting another movie it was time out loading. CSM siad he has spoken to the ground and they informed him it would probably spread to everyone So he reset the whole system - took 15 mins. After that mine worked fine but mrs alect's didn't. Main thing was that mini-alect's was fine and she watched Curious George (and kept quiet) followed by sleep.

P.S. One of the funny things I always see with those who have not used the IFE before is how they take the "remote control" out of the arm rest and press button while pointing it at the IFE screen :mrgreen: - there were a few novices in row 11 with me, 2 of whom had been op-up'd and were thrilled but had to talk about it and all the whiz bang seat features and service features throughout the flight

 

[Yada Yada]

Unless the IFE system/wiring was likely to cause an accident, I very much doubt Qantas would delay a flight by 8 hrs, just to make it reliable.

Funnily enough, I sat aboard a fully loaded NZ 747 in SYD back in 2002, for their (then) direct LAX service, and waited for a little over 2 hours while they fixed the IFE. The announcement advised that as the safety demo was done using the IFE, they had no choice but to get it fixed before departure.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Funnily enough, I sat aboard a fully loaded NZ 747 in SYD back in 2002, for their (then) direct LAX service, and waited for a little over 2 hours while they fixed the IFE. The announcement advised that as the safety demo was done using the IFE, they had no choice but to get it fixed before departure.

That is strictly not true. If IFE not working they can do the safety demo the old fashioned way. I've had this happen to me a few times on airlines that rely on IFE for the safety video. Always a good test of whoever gets the short straw to read it all out and see how well the others notice their cues.

 

[Yada Yada]

That is strictly not true. If IFE not working they can do the safety demo the old fashioned way. I've had this happen to me a few times on airlines that rely on IFE for the safety video. Always a good test of whoever gets the short straw to read it all out and see how well the others notice their cues.

I thought it was a bit weird at the time, but was sitting in Y with Mrs Yada Yada and three kids (aged 11, 6 and 1 :shock so had my hands full dealing with that. So you think perhaps something else was up and they weren't saying? Either way, it made a 13½ hour flight into approx 16 hours on-board. Thankfully, Disneyland was at the other end.