matrixwalker2012

How come Qantas doesn’t offer a night departure to LAX? I would prefer to see a flight that lets me have a full day in SYD before flying back to LAX and then arriving just in time to go home, shower, and sleep. On top of that, if QF does that, the plane could turn around quickly and go back to SYD instead of the plane sitting there all day.

Mwenenzi

The SYD curfew 23:00 to 05:00 influences departure and arrival time for long haul.
QF12 LAX SYD 22:30 06:20
QF11 SYD LAX 09:50 06:30
Early morning arrival in SYD works for most people, and allows onwards QF domestic connections.

markis10

Curfew has nothing to do with it, if it did there would be alternate flights available at locales without a curfew. The fact that all eastern seaboard flights depart in the day suggests demand is there for times that allow work on arrival. I note NZ2 leaves AKL at night, perhaps,their market is more US origin centric?

number_6

Plane isnt just sitting at LAX all day, QF has a huge mechanics base at LAX and the planes are being maintained. Apparently this is cheaper than doing the same at SYD As for pax preference on schedule, 6pm-ish arrival into LAX limits flight choices for onward connections. In past years QF has tried all sorts of schedule variants, there used to be 1 flight LAX-SYD-LAX which was noon departure from LAX and it was not popular. Hence the current schedule where all flights (by all airlines) are within a couple of hours of each other. Any other timing seems to become short lived. Air NZ has a different schedule as they have an AKL-LAX-LHR flight and the LAX part has to fit in with LHR slots they have available.

vbroucek

Unfortunately, you are one of many... I am sure Qantas did their stats and it seems they are against you... Don't forget that Qantas is Australian airline, so their preference goes to Australians and they seem to prefer otherwise...

og

QF into LAX is all about connecting traffic - especially for the business oriented passengers. Early arrivals from Oz and late departures back to Oz maximise opportunities for connecting pax. And as stated above, running the aircraft through light maintenance in LAX makes a total package for QF that they jealously protect.

serfty

None of the carriers currently have such a direct flight.

From next year (March?), Qantas have scheduled an evening departure out of MEL, arriving LAX 7:00pm - but I think that's more to do with aircraft utilization (LHR-PER-MEL-LAX) - certainly looking at a flightI am booked on in June, loadings seem light:

J9 C9 D9 I9 W9 R9 T9 Z1 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9 G0 X9 E3

Annalisa12

I disagree. I'm a Sydneysider and I don't want a night flight to LAX.

Ausriver

Instead of opening a new thread, however does anyone knows the reasons behind QF128 and QF118 (HKG-SYD) departing only 35 minutes next to each other?

og

I'm not quite sure how you can fly SYD-LAX without a (short) night time. Leave SYD in the mid morning and arrive first thing at LAX. Leave SYD in the arvo or evening and you still have to fly through the night and arrive in the middle of the day or later.

Annalisa12

I mean i dont want to depart SYD at 7 pm or after. I want to depart SYD in the Morning.

Dave Noble

me neither - a morning flight from LAX-SYD would also be good

vbroucek

DELETED - posted by mistake...

lokijuh

I think a valid question. SYD-LAX and LAX-SYD would have to be one of the very few major routes in the world which only has one flight timing in both directions, despite having five airlines operating the route. To the point of having 5 flights departing within an hour of each other, and nothing again for 24 hrs.

For Asian flights - which have similar, but not identical, "clockface" times for the flights to/from LAX (and other west coast ports), they seem to have a spread of departures (from around noon to early evening) for flights going to LAX, and two waves of departures (middle of the day, late evening/midnight) - from LAX back to Asia. For some reason Australian flights don't have the middle of the day waive, one presumes that the Asian flights have a larger portion of traffic with LAX as starting or ending point, whilst the Australian flights rely on connecting traffic.

I guess most of my fellow Australians just enjoy the flights that allow early morning arrivals in both directions. I'm more of an evening arrival person, particularly on westbound flights, I much prefer the midday departures , evening arrivals, particularly travelling in Y. Also allows me to get a days work done on the plane. Which is fine for me travelling back to Asia, but if I was travelling back to Australia it would be impossible!

lokijuh

But what are the loadings like on QF93 that day? June is a long way out....

This timing (and rotation) is actually well suited for PER-LAX connections, PER pax can avoid the redeye to SYD/MEL, so it will be interesting to see how it goes.