Does anyone know the backstory to the scheduling of QF17 which pre-Covid used to be the late flight from SYD to LAX arriving in the evening (vis-a-via the QF11 daytime service arriving in the morning) but which now also departs during the day but only on Mondays? It is a 787 vs the QF11 A380. The QF18 return flies on Thursday evening out of LAX providing extra capacity back to SYD in time for the weekend (Saturday am arrival) but 4 days between outbound and inbound seems a lot unless it's for a maintenance program? Curious to learn the reasoning for this timetabling! Thanks!
The daily A380 covers the bulk of pax to LAX, with B787 fleet being stretched thin at the moment. Also allows for B787 to have 13+ hours on the ground for scheduled servicing at the LAX Maintenance Base, or longer depending on the schedule needs.
With the A380 coming back onto MEL-LAX end of October, that also takes some of the pax connecting to LAX from places like WA/SA/TAS that have been using SYD services, especially those seeking F class, along with the daily AA codeshare from SYD on 77W. This also frees up B787 capacity to operate MEL-DFW on Wed / Fri / Sun, which has ostensibly been shaved from the SYD-LAX schedules.
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QF17/18 SYD-LAX
BatteryBen2
BatteryBen2
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 15 Sep 2023
Total posts 1
Does anyone know the backstory to the scheduling of QF17 which pre-Covid used to be the late flight from SYD to LAX arriving in the evening (vis-a-via the QF11 daytime service arriving in the morning) but which now also departs during the day but only on Mondays? It is a 787 vs the QF11 A380. The QF18 return flies on Thursday evening out of LAX providing extra capacity back to SYD in time for the weekend (Saturday am arrival) but 4 days between outbound and inbound seems a lot unless it's for a maintenance program? Curious to learn the reasoning for this timetabling! Thanks!
born2fish
born2fish
Member since 01 Apr 2014
Total posts 17
In short, there are a number of related reasons:
The daily A380 covers the bulk of pax to LAX, with B787 fleet being stretched thin at the moment. Also allows for B787 to have 13+ hours on the ground for scheduled servicing at the LAX Maintenance Base, or longer depending on the schedule needs.
With the A380 coming back onto MEL-LAX end of October, that also takes some of the pax connecting to LAX from places like WA/SA/TAS that have been using SYD services, especially those seeking F class, along with the daily AA codeshare from SYD on 77W. This also frees up B787 capacity to operate MEL-DFW on Wed / Fri / Sun, which has ostensibly been shaved from the SYD-LAX schedules.