Chilean Volcanic Ash Cloud

[Nigel C]

There are no domestic bays set up for the A380, so unless they had permission to transfer them via an international bay, I can't see that it would be likely.
But, stranger things have happened!

[Stephen Brown]

The Today show also said that Virgin deployed an A380 to clear the backlog.....credibility I think NOT!

[Matt_L]

Ryan,

got some additional info:

QFA412 landing in SYD from MEL at 0920 local is a 744,

QF6004 landing in SYD from MEL at 0930 local is a 744

JST7992 an A332 is about to depart SYD for MEL

Maybe these 744s will turn around back onto the MEL run? who knows.. not sure if they flew SYD MEL this morning as well..

[Matt_L]

Originally Posted by Stephen Brown

The Today show also said that Virgin deployed an A380 to clear the backlog.....credibility I think NOT!

Kinda like the ABC report last night I heard which referred to a Jumbo jet that landed on the Hudson river

[David Ramsay]

Statement from Rob Fyfe, Air New Zealand CEO

I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all those in the Flight Operations teams who worked so hard last week to maintain safe operations across the Air New Zealand network despite the challenges presented by the ash cloud from Mt Puyehue Cordon Caulle in Chile which drifted across Australia, the Tasman Sea and New Zealand. With ash re-entering Australian airspace today, it looks like they once again have a busy time ahead.

Coordinated by our Chief Pilot David Morgan and Bob Fletcher in Operations Support, the Flight Ops teams and Fleet Managers across each of our fleet types and regional airlines have been working together with the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority, Met Service and Air Traffic Control/Airways New Zealand to undertake a continuous risk assessment, determine the position of the ash cloud and adapt our flight paths and flight levels to ensure we could continue to operate in ash-free air throughout the week. Whenever we perceived a risk that our clear air requirements would be compromised we ceased services, but fortunately this happened on relatively few occasions.

While a number of other airlines in Australasia initially ceased services, as the week progressed all airlines, with the exception of Qantas and Jetstar, were operating on a similar basis as Air New Zealand.

Air New Zealand’s commitment to adapting its services and accepting the cost of a higher fuel burn to fly longer tracks at lower altitude was very well received by customers and increasingly the media began praising Air New Zealand’s approach as the week progressed.

Behind the scenes however we were constantly battling a series of malicious rumours that emerged from the Australian market and fed to media, suggesting that Air New Zealand had six aircraft in the hangar with ash damage, an aircraft grounded in Australia with ash damage and an aircraft requiring a nose cone replacement as a result of ash damage. All these stories were a complete fiction and I was left scratching my head as to where these false rumours were coming from.

Then at the end of the week, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce sent an email to the Qantas’ eight million frequent flyer customers, trying to justify the decision by Qantas to ground many of its aircraft while all other airlines were flying and implying that airlines like Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia were operating unsafely.

What Alan omitted to mention was that it wasn’t just Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia that had managed to adapt their operations to operate safely in clear air, but all airlines apart from Qantas and Jetstar had managed to achieve the vast majority of their operations. What Alan also failed to mention was that Qantas was very happy to transfer thousands of its customers onto Air New Zealand and other airlines’ services, which seems a strange thing to do for your customers if you have concerns about the safety of the airspace.

Given Mt Puyehue Cordon Caulle continues to erupt, we will continue to see ash clouds drift across the region, like we are today, possibly for weeks and/or months to come. Air New Zealand will continue to adopt a similar approach to that we achieved last week, maintaining operations where we are confident we can do so safely without any heightened risk to our aircraft, crew and passengers.

It is also likely that we will see Qantas and Jetstar come under further customer and media pressure if they continue to adopt this strategy of grounding aircraft and it is possible that we will continue to see misinformation and false rumours emerge in the market.

Rob Fyfe

[Oliver Gigacz]

Looks like there could be some more disruptions.

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDD65290.shtml

Or is the dotted line something else?

[Mick F]

That's all been down there for a few days now. Doesn't look to be doing too much.

Mick

[Oliver Gigacz]

Is the dotted line the ash cloud?

[Rob R]

Both the dotted and solid lines are the ash cloud, just the levels at which it starts are different in each area.

[Craig Murray]

G'day Oliver, the graphic details the following information regarding volcanic ash:

• Broken Lines - Surface to 20,000ft
• Unbroken Lines - 20,000ft to 40,000ft