Airports Across UK To Close?

[Daniel F]

According to this article, the Qantas flights didn't depart London due to issues with CASA.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/c...-1225856689759

[Arthur T]

Hopefully the stranded passengers can get home by this ANZAC Day weekend.
Meanwhile, to speed up passengers movement and to avoid quota imposed on crowded airports such as LHR, is there any chance that flights to London (as well as other major cities) can use other airports instead, such as STN? I think STN should be less crowded than LHR where simply scrap those budget carriers in service until all premium carriers finishes their job would be reasonable.

[Stuart Trevena]

Hi All,

Did OJS depart or is she still stuck at LHR?

Stuart

[Daniel F]

Originally Posted by Arthur T

I think STN should be less crowded than LHR where simply scrap those budget carriers in service until all premium carriers finishes their job would be reasonable.

What a load of nonsense! Why should premium carriers be given priority over budget carriers? And think about all the chaos it would cause with passengers confused about which airport they should be going to.

[Paul McFarlane]

Originally Posted by Arthur T

I think STN should be less crowded than LHR where simply scrap those budget carriers in service until all premium carriers finishes their job would be reasonable.

Yet another ridiculous statement to add to your collection!

What about the passengers on those budget carriers (both stranded and currently booked); by scrapping their services you are only adding to the problem of a backlog of passengers.

Somedays I wonder if you are taking the mickey here, but the concerning thing is that I think that you are deadly serious!

[Peter Agatsiotis]

Not sure which a/c got canned but one of the 2 due in SYD tomorrow morning.

Just now VH-OJA is heading out to SIN/BKK? as QF6004 presumably to help bring back pax to SYD. No details on acars.

[Ian Nicholls]

QF32 left Heathrow at 2337 local on 21/4 VH-OJS

Arriving into Heathrow 22/4 am are:

QF9 VH-OJU, QF31 VH-OEH and QF1 VH-OJC. This
should mean VH-OJF on QF5 into FRA.

No indications of any extra flight leaving LHR today
so unclear when VH-OJG is scheduled out.

[Jason H]

VH-OJT will be operating into LHR as QF9, VH-OJU will arrive on the morning of 23/4. Also, VH-OJP will arrive as QF29.

VH-OJA, I believe, will be operating the QF6 tonight SIN-SYD only, arriving back into SYD tomorrow morning

[Ash W]

Originally Posted by Arthur T

Hopefully the stranded passengers can get home by this ANZAC Day weekend.

How pray tell would you do that? I mean to say think of the number of people that have been effected by the Qantas alone.

Here are some sum's, of course making some assumptions to illustrate.

Qantas has about 4 flights a day to London, with a capacity of 400 passengers. Assuming a 80% load factor that is 320x4=1280 people effected each day. This has gone on for about 7 days, which makes about 8960 people delayed.

Even if you flew in empty aircraft it would take 23 aircraft of around 400 seats to bring that many people back. Where do you think Qantas or anyone else is going to find that many aircraft?

Now of course as I said I made some worst case sconario assumptions but the bottom line is it will take weeks, not several days to get everyone home and things back to normal.

[Steve Crook]

A friend of mine was leading a small tour group from Germany. They were transitting Sydney on their way back to Germany when flights were suspended on the first day of the airspace closure. Qantas did a great job and put them up at hotels and kept them informed. Even so, at this stage, some may get on a flight to Germany on April 26th, with the remainder being advised that they will be travelling on May 10th. They are being advised that they MIGHT get on an earlier flight but the 10th is more likely.