Qantas Frequent Flyer - QF11/12 A380 down to 4xweek

Link: http://airlineroute.net/2012/08/03/qf-sydlax-aug12/

Check your flight! 3 flights per week operating with Old 747. So it seems QF, discontent with losing customers only on flights to Asia and Europe, wants to annoy customers across the Pacific too. All for the purposes of .......ising the configuration of an already lacking product.

More evidence of the most incompetent management team in Australian corporate history. I would happily pay for a one way ticket for Mr Joyce out of Mascot.

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QANTAS from 01AUG12 to 30SEP12 is reducing Airbus A380 operation on Sydney – Los Angeles QF011/012 service, which operates four times a week. The other 3 days on this flight operates with Boeing 747-400 aircraft.

This is mainly due to reconfiguration project, which sees A380 configuration changes from existing 450-seater P14J72W32Y332 layout to 484-seater P14J64W35Y371.

Schedule:

QF107 SYD1000 – 0635LAX 744 D
QF011 SYD1305 – 0940LAX 744 135
QF011 SYD1305 – 0945LAX 388 x135

QF012 LAX2210 – 0605+2SYD 744 135
QF012 LAX2210 – 0610+2SYD 388 x135
QF108 LAX2350 – 0740+2SYD 744 D

They have enough aircraft to operate the normal schedule with the silly reconfiguration happening. This is most likely due to maintenance requirements. There are 3 aircraft coming due for C Checks.

As a random aside, the new config A380 has operated flights to London for the first time on 26th/27th July. Interestingly, it seems to be confined to the SYD-HKG route since then.

Rather ironically QF has just started an F sale LAX-SYD (must be US origin), confined to QF11/12. Maybe the cheaper F is based on using B744s on QF11/12 :)

QF can operate MEL/SYD-LAX (daily), MEL/SYD-LHR (daily) and SYD-HKG (4 weekly) with 11 aircraft with the 12th rotating through MNL for the stupid reconfig. Without that "spare" A380, any issues that arise with an A380 would then require use of a 747 replacement.

C Checks are carried out roughly 2 years apart. 3 aircraft (OQG, OQH and OQI) are coming up on their 2 year anniversaries. OQA and OQB are coming up on 2 years since their C Checks, which makes then due for their next check.
This means that between September and February, there are 5 aircraft due for extensive maintenance checks with each aircraft being out of service for 2-3 weeks.

To simply blame the reconfigs (although that is a factor) and call it incompetent management is nothing more baseless ramblings. They either take the A380 out of service for maintenance and replace it with a 744, or they take the A380 out of service for maintenance and cancel the flights.

OQA and OQB are coming up on 2 years since their C Checks, which makes then due for their next check.

Is Nancy Bird really going to go through a C Check considering she spent the bulk of the 2 year period on the ground in SIN.
I thought the checks are based on flight hours/cycles so she should at least be safe.

Is Nancy Bird really going to go through a C Check considering she spent the bulk of the 2 year period on the ground in SIN.
I thought the checks are based on flight hours/cycles so she should at least be safe.She's due based on time since the last check, but the 17 months spent in SIN is likely to affect that timeline. Even if the next heavy check for OQA is delayed due to lack of cycles, QF still has upwards of 3-4 months worth of aircraft sitting in FRA getting taken apart and put back together to work into their schedules.