Jestar still flying vs NZ earlier in the year.

[Kiwiwings]

Remember that weather disruption where I think JQ was still flying and NZ weren’t? I think NZ proactively cancelled flights down South and maybe elsewhere. Turns out Christchurch never really got hit.

 

Does JQ have different weather people they listen to vs Air NZ? Just curious. I’m assuming they use Qantas weather advisors? I don’t know if each airline has it’s own or if down under we use a common weather info source for airlines although it would seem that’s not the case.

[Adam Jobbins]

I really don’t know, but if I had to guess, I’d say JQ may be more willing to risk an attempt and a diversion to try and keep to schedule. The flow on effect of cancellations to operators like JQ is far worse than the likes of NZ given the high aircraft utilisation

[Steve Biddle]

I think it’s more of a case of attempting to minimise ongoing network disruption rather than getting the forecast “wrong”. By cancelling flights beforehand it does deliver some certainly, and lets planes and crews be where they are needed.

In both recent events where they did mass cancellations disruptions did occur, they just weren’t as bad as predicted.

 

 

[Kiwiwings]

Adam Jobbins wrote:

I really don’t know, but if I had to guess, I’d say JQ may be more willing to risk an attempt and a diversion to try and keep to schedule. The flow on effect of cancellations to operators like JQ is far worse than the likes of NZ given the high aircraft utilisation

Steve Biddle wrote:

I think it’s more of a case of attempting to minimise ongoing network disruption rather than getting the forecast “wrong”. By cancelling flights beforehand it does deliver some certainly, and lets planes and crews be where they are needed. In both recent events where they did mass cancellations disruptions did occur, they just weren’t as bad as predicted.

 

The thing is I don’t actually think the weather was that bad in say Welly and Christchurch according to some tweets and talking to people in Christchurch. Yet Air NZ fly to Welly on a bad day and have a go. It’s up to the pilots whether they attempt to land or abort isn’t it? I’m unclear as to why NZ didn’t keep flying until the weather started to get bad. Surely pilots can say ‘hey it’s crap up here mate’ and word gets around? Maybe stop flying earlier? I understand weather can be different on the ground from what’s above but JQ was flying so can’t have been too awful. It just seems weird to have JQ flying and NZ not when they’re sharing the same airspace. And it seems unlikely that JQs weather forecasters had different weather reports from NZs? And if they are indeed the same then why the difference in decisions to fly or not fly?

I’m surprised they didn’t just warn passengers there could be disruptions but keep flying. ‘Weather’ happens in each airport and they announce changes at the time. It’s weird they were proactive in cancelling flights last time due to predicted weather disruptions.

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