Flights suspended due to the ash.

Eppo said :

Yeh, we’ve decided to forget about trying to fly out of Canberra tomorrow morning and will instead drive up tonight, leaving the car with friends for the time we’re away. Doesn’t guarantee getting out of Aus tomorrow though unfortunately, because we’re flying international with QF!

I don’t understand why, given QANTAS has decided it’s so dangerous, that just about every other (or all?) international carriers are still flying out of Sydney tonight.

Domestic flights before international flights suck big time. I always take the bus there and back. I’ve had some rather annoying experiences about missing connections in Sydney on the way back – due to Qantas’s total disorganistion. But that’s totally OT!

Have a look here http://www.sydneyairport.com.au/sacl/International-Departures.html and you’ll see that lots of Qantas fligths are leaving as normal. It only seems to be the ones to NZ and US that are being cancelled today.

Good luck for tomorrow!

Why would anyone ever want to leave this mountain paradise?

Watson said :

Eppo said :

I don’t know whether or not this ash business is a massive beat up and a result of some overly cautious airline management or a genuine threat. Obviously for those of us on the ground looking up (prior to today anyway!) there hasn’t been anything other than blue sky. Certainly no visible ash.

I think I’m just frustrated that my first holiday in 7 years is likely to suffer cancelled flights tomorrow, stuffing up all the other bookings and plans I’ve got in Europe. Just my luck.

I have a friend who is on the bus to Sydney to get a flight to Europe as we speak. I just checked the Sydney airport intern’l departures and the flights from non-Australian airlines are still leaving as usual and are not mentioned in any news report I could find.

Also, Europe is not being affected this time and seems unlikely to be, being so far North of the volcano.

Yeh, we’ve decided to forget about trying to fly out of Canberra tomorrow morning and will instead drive up tonight, leaving the car with friends for the time we’re away. Doesn’t guarantee getting out of Aus tomorrow though unfortunately, because we’re flying international with QF!

I don’t understand why, given QANTAS has decided it’s so dangerous, that just about every other (or all?) international carriers are still flying out of Sydney tonight.

According to a Qantas Frequent Flyer email that was doing the rounds, Australia does not have a volcanic ash monitoring ability like Europe does to assess the actual amount of ash in the air. Therefore, if there is any forecast of ash, they have to ground flights when if the amount of ash could be measured, it may be in a low enough level to allow flights.

From Sydney, that is.

PS: The next Qantas flight – scheduled for a 12.10pm departure – hasn’t been cancelled.

Very real… can be very dangerous. Have a read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9

Eppo said :

I don’t know whether or not this ash business is a massive beat up and a result of some overly cautious airline management or a genuine threat. Obviously for those of us on the ground looking up (prior to today anyway!) there hasn’t been anything other than blue sky. Certainly no visible ash.

I think I’m just frustrated that my first holiday in 7 years is likely to suffer cancelled flights tomorrow, stuffing up all the other bookings and plans I’ve got in Europe. Just my luck.

Its very real aparrently. The ash turns to glass with the heat once it has entered a jet engine & can cause catastrophic engine failure within 90 seconds. I dont know what the safe level of ash is but apparrently the Beureau does not have the equipment to detect how thick the cloud is, that is why the airlinse are playing it cautiously.

Eppo said :

I don’t know whether or not this ash business is a massive beat up and a result of some overly cautious airline management or a genuine threat. Obviously for those of us on the ground looking up (prior to today anyway!) there hasn’t been anything other than blue sky. Certainly no visible ash.

I think I’m just frustrated that my first holiday in 7 years is likely to suffer cancelled flights tomorrow, stuffing up all the other bookings and plans I’ve got in Europe. Just my luck.

I have a friend who is on the bus to Sydney to get a flight to Europe as we speak. I just checked the Sydney airport intern’l departures and the flights from non-Australian airlines are still leaving as usual and are not mentioned in any news report I could find.

Also, Europe is not being affected this time and seems unlikely to be, being so far North of the volcano.

Eppo said :

I don’t know whether or not this ash business is a massive beat up and a result of some overly cautious airline management or a genuine threat. Obviously for those of us on the ground looking up (prior to today anyway!) there hasn’t been anything other than blue sky. Certainly no visible ash.

I think I’m just frustrated that my first holiday in 7 years is likely to suffer cancelled flights tomorrow, stuffing up all the other bookings and plans I’ve got in Europe. Just my luck.

The issue as I understand it isn’t so much that the ash will bring planes out of the sky, it’s that in reduces the service life of the engine.

It’s not economical to fly with current ticket prices at the additional level of wear.

That’s why Tiger are the most grounded.

I suspect Virgin are being more aggressive as they see it as a chance to chip off some rusted on Qantas flyers.