QANTAS will go daily to DFW

[Jon Harris]

QF has just announced its DFW will increase to 6 x weekly from 15JAN12 and go daily from 01JUL12.

That's refereshing news after all the cutting/cutback style announcements of recent.

Great stuff!

[Andrew P]

Sandilands will go balistic

[Jarden S]

Will they keep the 744ER's on the route or deploy the A380 on the new days it operates?

[John Arena]

ii think that the aircraft will remain a B744ER as QFA are expected to take deliveries of (2?) A380s late this year (i see them deploying the acf to Bangkok to compensate for BA pulling out of BKK-SYD.) which would free up a couple of 747's for the route.

Then again, my theory could be totally wrong

John

[Jarden S]

I had a feeling this would have come.
If Qantas was going to increase any of it routes it flies to, DFW would be at the top of their list

[A McLaughlin]

Alan Joyce said yesterday there have only been three techstops on the flight home from DFW since the services started in May, way fewer than the LAX-MEL route when it kicked off.

Airbus COO John Leahy also said it was unlikely an A380 could do it reliably until the higher gross weight versions start being delivered next year, but then you'll have to fill 490 seats.

Cheers

[Kelvin R]

Given that QF only have 6 ER frames can someone help me understand the frames being utilized for this service and the SCL flights which would require the ER frames? Especially when 1 frame will be unavailable for refit during the next 10 months and QF107/ 108 is generally operated by an ER frame as well.

I still don't understand how QF can only need 9x 744 frames by end 2013, even with the recent changes to HKG and BKK.

[Andrew Johnson]

BNE/DFW return for $1299 for departures from 15 Jan !!! Presume SYD/DFW return is same.

This is damn cheap for end of school holidays, although just had a look & not a lot of seats left in JAN (Qantas email went out last night, so they were either snapped up, or not many of these seats in school holidays)

Easy connections from DFW to almost everywhere & you can use you QF ff points for onward flights, even to popular destinations. AA seemed to have realised they need to open up seats to frequent flyers or they have lots of seats going empty.

[Maikha Ly]

Hi folks

Could I ask what's involved with a 'Technical Stop', like they do in Brisbane and/or Nadi for these flights? Does it involve deplaning all the passengers to refuel/restock the aircraft, like a typical stopover, or is it a motor racing like 'pitstop' with just a refueling on the ground with passengers still aboard, and then departing again?

Any answers to relieve my curiosity would be much appreciated! :)

[Ash W]

Brisbane isn't a tech stop on this flight, Brisbane is a destination so or the normal stuff happens.

As for a tech stop like Nadi, I have only ever once been an an aircraft that did a tech stop for fuel and it was like the pitstop scenario you mentioned. Stop, fuel, go. This was in Belgium somewhere on a London to Malta flight when there was a refulers strike in Heathrow.

[Andrew Johnson]

On a DFW/BNE nonstop a tech stop probably means crew will go over hours & so another crew must be found.

So another crew must fly in from Australia.

It's a pity FJ 744 crew couldn't operate a QF 744. Think unions would have something to say about this idea.

Surely if FJ knew that QF 744 would be landing in NAN (from DFW) then one of their 744 crews could do sector NAN/BNE.

Are QF 744ER's that different to FJ 744's ? (owned by SQ I think & codeshared with QF & NZ)

(Qantas owns something like 46% of FJ, Fiji government something like 50.1%, so indirectly FJ employees work for Qantas)

[Owen H]

Yes I think the unions would have something to say about that!

As would the regulatory bodies, flight operations departments, and not least of all insurers.

[A McLaughlin]

All three tech stops made on the DFW-BNE to date have been planned and known about before the aircraft left DFW, so QF crew had already been positioned to fly the last short sector.

[Andrew Johnson]

not according to media reports.

One rotation had no new crew at NAN. Some pax apparently got onto FJ NAN/SYD but most had to sit around all day, while new crew arrived from SYD think it was.

[Max C]

The crew from that came from BNE.

Apparently they were already in BNE to do the BNE-SYD sector but got a call early in the morning to position on FJ BNE-NAN, and then operate NAN-BNE-SYD.

Definitely wasn't planned prior to departure DFW.

[Andrew Johnson]

that makes sense.

Actually some of QF pax probably got on FJ NAN/BNE.

[Maikha Ly]

Thanks Andrew, and Ash for the previous replies.

[Andrew P]

Doubt it, as baggage will not be offloaded in Nandi, and bags must go with passengers

Friend did London Hong Kong nonstop on Cx, to connect with Cx to Taipei

As Hk was fogged out, plane had to divert to Taipei

He then had to fly back to HK, then get plane back to Taipei

[Andrew Johnson]

Doubt it, as baggage will not be offloaded in Nandi, and bags must go with passengers

Friend did London Hong Kong nonstop on Cx, to connect with Cx to Taipei

As Hk was fogged out, plane had to divert to Taipei

He then had to fly back to HK, then get plane back to Taipei
I don't know. If I was a business passenger or had a meeting in Brisbane or Sydney, I would 1) insist QF put me on 1st available flight to BNE or SYD or 2) get my own ticket & not care about my luggage, it always turn up sometimes.

No one can hold you captive !!!

People have been know to feign heart attacks & as soon as they get out of where they want to, then do what they intended.

[Max C]

We had a similar experience on QF 2 years ago.

LAX-SYD diverted to BNE due fog in SYD. Over 100 pax were for BNE anyway as no LAX-BNE flight that day. No one was allowed off as it was just a quick fuel stop then off to SYD before crew ran out of hours.

[A McLaughlin]

Just going on what Alan Joyce told me on Wednesday.

[Owen H]

Andrew J,

No - one can hold you captive - except airport officials...

If you think its as simple as saying "Excuse me, I'm getting off, see ya", then you're very, very wrong. Give it a go in a diversion airport sometime and see what sort of response you get.

Don't be surprised if weapons are involved in some parts of the world.

Usually the crew would be more than happy for you to get off. The local officials less so.

[chrisb]

I don't know. If I was a business passenger or had a meeting in Brisbane or Sydney, I would 1) insist QF put me on 1st available flight to BNE or SYD or 2) get my own ticket & not care about my luggage, it always turn up sometimes.


Dave Hughes & John Hewson tried it when they diverted to AVV instead of MEL. They were not allowed off and ended up missing the show they were flying in for.

[Andrew Johnson]

How silly.

If I was bound for BNE via SYD, I wouldn't fly BNE/SYD to then turn around & fly SYD/BNE.

I would have got suddenly really sick & demanded a Dr/paramedic & got off the aircraft in BNE.

All you have to say in heart pains !!!

[Michael Mak]

And waste the time of the doctor and paramedic when they could attend to a real emergency? How selfish of you.

[Max C]

Agreed, the turn around was 55 min which I thought was pretty good considering there were at least 4 other SYD-bound flights waiting to go.

So sad to see some just look out for themselves...

[Hakan I]

I was on a LAX-SYD flight that got diverted to HNL because of patient who had chest pain, due to a late departure from LAX we ended up being diverted to BNE as crew were out of hours before flying onto SYD, the BNE bound folk were not too pleased, I had to connect to MEL so it ended it being an interesting flight home that day as i missed by MCO-LAX direct flight and ended up flying MCO-MEM-LAX-HNL-BNE-SYD-MEL ... needless to say i think i slept for 24hours straight by the time i got home!

As for faking chest pain, working for the Ambulance Service in Melbourne this is not a shocking story, people pay an ambulance membership and automatically assume they are entitled to use it as taxi, it's amazing the number of times crews are dealing with a paper cut when they could be responding to someone who will actually die without urgent medical intervention.

Oh well, thats life i guess.

[Ryan N]

Andrew J,

No - one can hold you captive - except airport officials...

If you think its as simple as saying "Excuse me, I'm getting off, see ya", then you're very, very wrong. Give it a go in a diversion airport sometime and see what sort of response you get.

Don't be surprised if weapons are involved in some parts of the world.

Usually the crew would be more than happy for you to get off. The local officials less so.

Something similar happened in Gatwick.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/air-india-passengers-endure-nine-hour-tarmac-wait/story-e6frfq80-1226168460719