ZZF flights on EK?
 

Hi Folks,

.,..sitting here in DXB about to enjoy another great trip on the 388 DXB-LHR... There are two flights on the board for "ZZF" listed as EK8722 and EK8225. Are these Antarctica Charters? ZZF is often used by airlines when flying to Antarctica. Any word on what equipment is used for this? I thought about walking down to the gate and check for myself but there is no gate number listed on the board.

TFD

Welcome to the EK Forum!

EK usually use the 8 in front of the flight number where a published schedule has been adjusted for some reason. In this case, 722 has experienced an issue of some sort. Could have been delayed etc.

EK722 is the Nairobi to DXB flight, so something has obviously occurred. One of the EK lurkers (either cabin crew or staff) who read the board might know and provide a better update.

Any Word on This?
 

A coworker of mine was in DBX around 3/27/11 and also saw two ZZF flights. A Google search only yields an Australian "Mystery Flight" ?!?. She said that when she was there the ZZF flights did not have gate numbers as well. She said that while the other destinations had city names these flights just had this code.

Very curious here...

I was on the 30th of Mar early morning at DXB and I saw three outbound ZZF flights with two flights in the midnight - early morning and one at the morning bunk. They did not have a gate and when I asked at the T3 J Lounge they said it was an "error" and shouldn't be there.

Now I am curious too!

I Saw them too 130am on 10th April-- when I got to Biz Check in.

Would have thought they would fix error by now... maybe skywards team is in charge of this enhancement?

Maybe they are the place holders for the cancelled ABJ, CAI and TIP flights?

Could it be a storage / maint. location
 

I'm stilling here in LAX an just noticed UA 9958 is going to VCV at 9:45 p.m. This is the same type of situation (all of the other listings have a city name, not the code). A quick search revealed that this is where they store planes that are not in use and also a location for aircraft painting. Is it possible that ZZF is a location where similar functions are performed for EK or just a code for planes that are going into maint. at DBX?

For the folks who want to know how it looks like on the departure/ arrival timetable, this is an image at the arrivals hall from last week:

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/57f090a4f2.jpg

this early morning, they had again several ZZF flights...

They might have seen our rants on FT and decided to troll us.

Any info on this ?
 

I saw this some days back again .. Any concrete info on the reason for this ?

ZZF is a dummy code used in SSIM schedules for slot blocking.

My guess is that the FIDS feeds directly from the ACL database and whoever filed the SSIM did so mistakenly under "J" code type which will then show up on the screens.

Thanks for the insight but we see the flights every week - it is just not a one-off error ...

I spoke to some EK staff today at T3 and they advised the same as above, but did refer to ZZF being a training flight and that it was a system glitch, which the beleaguered EK IT department needs to fix...it shouldn't be showing up at all on the screens

Flights are filed by season. You'll see them until October unless someone corrects the SSIM file before.

Extraordinary rendition?

Where better to hide than in plain sight?