Amendment to Qantas flight numbers (eff. 26 Oct)

[Will T]

Effective 26th October 2008, a number of Qantas mainline flight numbers will change, in order to:

- allow defined number ranges for ongoing ops (QF1-150) and supplementaries (QF151-199); and
- increase the number of flight number pairs available for future use.

The following services will be affected:

Route Current New

SYD-PEK QF191 QF105
PEK-SYD QF192 QF106
SYD-HKG QF187 QF87
HKG-SYD QF188 QF88
MEL-NRT QF179 QF119
NRT-MEL QF180 QF120
NRT-PER QF70 QF80
BNE-LAX QF175 QF15
LAX-BNE QF176 QF16
SYD-AKL QF189 QF113
AKL-SYD QF190 QF114
SYD-AKL QF163 QF141
AKL-SYD QF164 QF142
AKL-SYD QF40 QF50
MEL-AKL QF39 QF133
BNE-NOU QF99 QF89

Apologies if this has already appeared elsewhere. Will

[Eli B]

wow thats interesting! i have always been a bit confused that there is a QF49 to LAX some days (three times a week) and i haven never come accross too many LAX SYD QF50's. And how does the QF8 get up to LAX?? Does the aircraft to the 49 up and the 8 back?

[Michael Wright]

Originally Posted by Eli B

wow thats interesting! i have always been a bit confused that there is a QF49 to LAX some days (three times a week) and i haven never come accross too many LAX SYD QF50's. And how does the QF8 get up to LAX?? Does the aircraft to the 49 up and the 8 back?

I believe that on Thursdays, it goes as QF149 and returns as QF8 leaving LAX around 12.20pm. On the other days were QF149 operates, it leaves LAX around 11.55PM as QF150.

[Eli B]

oh yes sorry 149 not 49

[D Chan]

while the re-defined number ranges makes good sense,
it would be nice if the flight numbers could be changed, so they are allocated logically according in 'regions'.

For example:
SYD-HKG QF187 QF87
HKG-SYD QF188 QF88
BNE-NOU QF99 QF89

87,88 has absolutely no relations with 89 e.g. short sector vs medium (sort of), one is into asia, the other is intra-oceania

[James Smith]

There was some logic to it. I think it was when Qantas took over Australian Airlines they had a major adjustment of the flight numbers with international services QF1 to 99, I think. I would need to look through my old timetables to be confirm.

QF 33 to 39 used to be Melbourne to NZ, QF43 to 49 plus 40 were Sydney to NZ and QF 53 to 58 used to be Brisbane to NZ. QF flights to the Pacific, including PNG were in the 90s - QF91/92 Noumea, QF93/94 Nadi originally, before Melbourne to LA, QF 95/96 Port Moresby. Over the years this has all been dismantled with firstly Brisbane replaced by Melbourne to LA flights via Auckland, codeshare flights and Jetstar taking over a number of Qantas services to NZ from Brisbane and Melbourne.

Qantas used to be so logical about their flight numbers that when they changed QF27/28 from Sydney to HK they made it QF127/128 to keep the 27/28 connection.

[David Proctor]

Originally Posted by James Smith

There was some logic to it. I think it was when Qantas took over Australian Airlines they had a major adjustment of the flight numbers with international services QF1 to 99, I think. I would need to look through my old timetables to be confirm.

Initially, QF1-299 were for international ops, with QF300+ for domestic. They very quickly realised that this would be insufficient (what with codeshares, and so on) so it was changed very quickly to QF1-399 being for international and QF400+ being domestic.

The latest change came about when QF started using T2 at SYD/YSSY, with QF400-1599 using T3 and QF1600+ using T2.

Dave