Qantas: Dallas Fort Worth this month, San Francisco, delayed.

I feel for the international schedulers at Qantas. They must be preparing a million scenarios for the presumption of various routes across the world, just to have one option adopted as COVID upends all the regular variables in route planning.

Dallas Fort Worth (DFW)

According to ET, Qantas is set to return to Dallas Fort Worth, on February 26, flying on a Dreamliner (QF7), to its One World Partner, American Airlines Texan base. That means that most passengers will only have to make one plane change to get almost anywhere in the USA.

San Francisco (SFO)

On the other hand, the resumption of the flights to the digital industry hub, San Francisco, originally scheduled to start on February 14 from Brisbane and on February 16 from Sydney, has now been delayed and the Sydney flight will recommence on 29 July, with no date set for Brisbane. That means USA bound Qantas flyers will now need to fly either through Los Angeles or DFW and then on to San Francisco. Alternately they could swap out the United (now a partner of Virgin Australia for a direct flight to SFO out of Sydney.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

The DFW flight is currently on a Dreamliner 787, while the LAX flight (QF11) is on an A380. I know which I would choose. But who wants to visit that plague-ridden country anyway?