Qantas woes

Qantas Jetconnect's woes in NZ skies continue. Yesterday 06-Jan-2009, one AKL-WLG return service was cancelled and two others ran late by 3 and 4 hrs respectively.

Yesterdays QF118/117 WLG-SYD-WLG operated by Boeing 737-476 ZK-JTQ operated via Auckland. The WLG-SYD leg was over 2hrs late departing WLG and was combined with QF2704 WLG-AKL. The aircraft then flew AKL-SYD. The resulting delay caused the return SYD-WLG to operate 5.5hrs late.

This is on top of many customer complaints and general outrage after Qantas/Jetconnect announced that the AKL-WLG-AKL route would be reduced severely to enable one of the fleet to undergo maintenance.

A news article on this can be found HERE

Hopefully the announced fleet replacement from (B733/4 to B738 ) happens sooner rather than later, and the on time stats improve. Otherwise Qantas's presence in NZ seems futile, with the current level of bad press, customer anger and regular delays and cancellations. It will also improve the Queenstown flights as the 738s are RNP equipped, meaning the regular cancellations and diversions due to weather will cease, as the aircraft will be able to make it into ZQN in most weather situations.