LAX-SYD DL41 only six days a week ?
 

I thought the LAX-SYD flight was daily but this week it looks as though DL41 arrived in SYD on Wed May 11 but does not return as DL 40 SYD-LAX until Thur May 12. It seems odd that Delta would park an aeroplane overnight at a remote aerodrome.

Virgin Australia makes the weekly timetable easy to see for both VA- and DL-operated flights. Indeed, the DL flight LAX-SYD doesn't operate on Tuesdays (Thursday arrival) and SYD-LAX doesn't operate on Wednesdays.

I agree that that's an odd way to do it. They could skip the Tuesday LAX-SYD and the Thursday SYD-LAX and have normal ground time in SYD all six days the flight operates, but I guess Thursday is enough busier than Wednesday for SYD-LAX that it's worth leaving the plane in SYD for 27 hours.

(Alternatively, they could drop the Monday LAX-SYD, but again, Monday flights must be enough more desirable than Tuesday flights for this schedule to make sense.)

By July 7, the DL flight is back to daily according to the VA timetable.

Thank you for the clarification - I was very curious that DL would deliberately park a 777-200LR for 27 hours at a remote aerodrome - especially since they only operate one flight a day (six times a week). Since there is such a limited DL presence in SYD I doubt there is any maintenance being performed on the aeroplane. I am not sure if this happened the previous week because I do not think DL41 flew LAX-SYD on Monday May 02 nor DL40 SYD-LAX on Wednesday May 04.
As for loads LAX-SYD..... I flew on a Tuesday earlier this month and saw every passenger in Economy had three seats on the UA787-9.

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Originally Posted by ashill (Post 26620948)

Virgin Australia makes the weekly timetable easy to see for both VA- and DL-operated flights. Indeed, the DL flight LAX-SYD doesn't operate on Tuesdays (Thursday arrival) and SYD-LAX doesn't operate on Wednesdays.

I agree that that's an odd way to do it. They could skip the Tuesday LAX-SYD and the Thursday SYD-LAX and have normal ground time in SYD all six days the flight operates, but I guess Thursday is enough busier than Wednesday for SYD-LAX that it's worth leaving the plane in SYD for 27 hours.

(Alternatively, they could drop the Monday LAX-SYD, but again, Monday flights must be enough more desirable than Tuesday flights for this schedule to make sense.)

By July 7, the DL flight is back to daily according to the VA timetable.

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Years ago they parked periodically for spraying. Maybe they're doing it in SYD again.

It does seem strange they would park in SYD. There is probably more room at SYD than there is at LAX, and it may be cheaper... but certainly seems like operations would benefit more from an extra plane at LAX.

I remember hearing rumors ages ago that some of the spray wasn't approved by the EPA for use in the USA, so they might need to do the spraying in Australia or elsewhere and plan to park the aircraft long enough for this to happen and for some of the worst effects of the spraying to dissipate, although just the time for spraying might knock the aircraft out of a SYD-LAX-SYD cycle. I'm guessing that due to the spray requirement, the same aircraft goes back and forth to Australia rather than SYD being part of a more complicated rotation.

OK: have to ask-- spraying??? For???

http://www.who.int/ith/mode_of_travel/aircraft_disinsection/en/

Insects, especially ones that aren't native to Australia. It''s required by their laws/regulations.

They seemed to have started this back in Nov...

I had a flight booked since Aug, but about a month later, no more seats being sold.
Ended up getting re-routed on the VA bird for the same day (had option of moving days to stay with DL)

From what I've seen - as i fly LAX-SYD at least twice a year... is alot of empty seats...depending on the day. Plenty of coach haulers occupying a whole row to themselves (1 per three seats...asleep)
Makes me jealous as I sit up in the luxurious C+ seats with my wife and daughter.

So, in form with DL strategy to fill birds to 95+% capacity, taking a day off, letting a bird sit and filling up the seats on the rest of the week makes perfect economical sense.

Parking a car at SYD for more than 15 minutes incurs an obscene charge,
Taxis picking up passengers are subjected to a special fee,
Railway passengers are extorted an 'access fee' for using the station
So I doubt aeroplane parking fees are cheaper than many other aerodrome.

United Airlines changed their Australian services to 787s recently but I do not remember reading any comments on FT about aeroplanes being sprayed when they arrived in Australia nor being taken out of service for the treatment.

Perhaps it's a ploy to limit inventory in an attempt to further justify the ridiculous award prices for LAX-SYD (at least in J).

This would be cutting off your nose to spite your face to a comical degree.

^ was more of a sarcastic response than anything. I'm just bitter as I was hoping to do LAX-SYD next year on miles but they seem to be making it impossible now.

I've been on flights where the aircraft has been sprayed upon arrival, with passengers reamining seated during the process. AFAIK the rules have changed and now require periodic spraying rather than the immediate spraying of every aircraft upon arrival.