Australian airline customers face a bleak holiday period with capacity problems across the country, ageing aircraft, exorbitant fares and no consumer guarantees for passengers to fall back on. Delays and cancellations continue as Qantas’ safety practices come into sharp focus.
Qantas is establishing a pattern of engine problems with a third failure in less than a month after one engine on a QF16 A330 from Los Angeles to Brisbane failed on Tuesday night (Pacific Standard Time) forcing the plane to return to the US. Pilots who spoke to Crikey said they were concerned that the same plane (VH-EBQ) on QF16 was cancelled on two consecutive flights last week on Wednesday and Friday. This was due to an engine problem on the inward flight QF15 on November 28, where “loud bangs” were heard and one engine then idled, according to an internal incident logbook report obtained by Crikey. The same plane was put back in the air, flying from LA to Brisbane on December 1, Brisbane to Auckland return on December 3, and then Brisbane to LA on the same day, before the same engine failed as it attempted to return to Brisbane from LA.
In the internal incident logbook report for QF16 on December 3, a copy of which has been seen by Crikey, pilots report that “three loud bangs” were heard throughout the aircraft when it got to 8,000 ft. After this, “sparks from the engine occurred at between 10 seconds and 60 seconds”. The engine was shut down as the aircraft returned to LA.
“It was observed by engineers on the ground that metal filings were found in the tailpipe”, the report concluded. Pilots confirmed this means the engine has had a “major failing of an internal component” and would need replacing. This would create a logistical nightmare for Qantas in getting an engine to LA because, as one pilot told Crikey, ”they don’t have fucking engines for anything”. The plane remains grounded in LA. Qantas has been contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.
“This is total contempt of passengers and the Civil Aviation Authority endemic of an airline with a cultural problem,” one Qantas pilot told Crikey.
The Aviation Transport Safety Board (ATSB) told Crikey that it had commenced “transport safety investigations” into both the November 9 Qantas engine failure at Sydney Airport and the “in-flight engine failure” in early December. Asked if the board knew of the previous engine problem on the plane, a spokesperson told Crikey the plane’s “operational and maintenance history” would be considered in the investigation.
Qantas’ ageing fleet and undermanned maintenance division is seeing more damaged planes regularly grounded, and with the failure to bolster its fleet under former CEO Alan Joyce, capacity problems have started to bite hard.
Crikey understands from pilots that to try and address at least some of its capacity problems, the Limping Roo is planning to move long-haul B787s onto major domestic routes over Christmas in an effort to add more seats. Virgin also has capacity problems, inking a new “wet lease” deal with regional player Air North to plug some of its gaps, according to an internal email seen by Crikey. Qantas also has wet lease deals — in which one airline provides resources to another — with Air North, Alliance Airways and Finnair.
Virgin’s capacity problems are not related to delayed or under-investment but rather to the global delivery slowdown at its main supplier Boeing.
In the firing line for engineering and capacity woes are the airline duopolies’ passengers who are already struggling to find seats on major routes and, when they do, are often being gouged with eye-watering prices.
Pilots are questioning the role of the ATSB whose chief commissioner was handed annual memberships to the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge and Virgin Beyond Lounge in July — along with an upgrade to Business Class for his wife from Sydney to Buenos Aires in May (curiously only valued at $1,265). The commissioner felt the need to justify the memberships to staff in a recent internal email, seen by Crikey.
“The ATSB chief commissioner’s lounge memberships are declared on the ATSB’s website in accordance with the gifts and benefits guidance issued by the Australian Public Service Commission for agency heads. There has been no change in position on agency heads having interactions with airlines retaining these memberships,” an ATSB spokesperson said.
Yesterday, passengers on the 1.30pm QF446 from Melbourne to Sydney experienced Qantas’ issues first-hand. They boarded and were then told the aircraft had engineering issues and later that another plane was needed. After about half an hour, the airline admitted it had no spare aircraft. Passengers — many of whom had connecting flights to get to — were booked on (much) later flights, some of which also suffered delays, one passenger told Crikey.
Of the 42 Qantas flights from Melbourne to Sydney yesterday, 21 were late and 5 were cancelled. At 6pm the Qantas flight board in Melbourne listed four flights delayed due to engineering or operational issues. The passenger, booked on the 1.30pm flight, eventually left at 8.22pm on the “6pm” flight. In the US and EU, such a delay would automatically mean that Qantas incurred hundreds of dollars in penalties.
The Albanese government’s answer is a taxpayer-funded ombudsman, a policy that looks like it was written in the Chairman’s Lounge.
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