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QF 26 Has Interesting Routes to Auckland Throughout its History

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Taking QF 26 takes 2 hours plus than taking Air New Zealand. Comparing the two, QF 26 takes bizarre routes over Honolulu and Fiji adding 700 miles and going over Tahiti adding 700 miles to the flight plan. 2 Air New Zealand flights complete the journey in 12.5 hours and QF 26 taking 14. Waste of fuel and time? Looking at the satellite, it looks fairly quite to the southeast of Hawaii, so what is the reason for the deviations? Is the A330 that much slower than the 777? The 747 from San Francisco… (flightaware.com) More...

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THRUSTT
THRUSTT 0
Maybe a distraction like getting BLOWN off course!!! Couldn't help it...
Ryan198416
Ryan Viveiros 0
Pacific storms, like hurricanes?

samscott28
sam scott 0
in a quick click thru most of the recent flights, only one (yesterday) is shown to go over HNL. I would agree with Ryan that maybe some storms caused the deviation, as shown on the current central pacific satellite: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/cphc/pages/TWO.php?image=grb
planeman33
Donald Rand 0
I thought enroute winds dictated the flight track?
davidtruchot
davidtruchot 0
It has to be the storms. Look at DL17 LAX-SYD for the same day, it flew over Hawaii, which it normally doesn't. I flew DL17 recently, and we normally fly south of the Hawaiian islands. The sat pix is quite telling too. I was on DL16 last Sunday, and we took the direct route, south of Hawaii too. Quite bumpy by Hawaii, but only for about 45 minutes.
FedExCargoPilot
Looks like there are some intense squall lines between Hawaii and Samoa. Was the turbulence due to thunderstorms or was it clear air? This might explain the extra mileage traveled because of the lines of thunderstorms.
Hectorgriswold
Any consideration to the recent labor ills for QF? Mayby a subtle job action?
conmanflyer
conmanflyer 0
Maybed ETOPs rules?
davidtruchot
davidtruchot 0
Good question. ETOPS rules will let you fly away from the islands (or actually, away from isolated airports, as you need runways), but if you loose the ETOPS certification, it might be impossible to fly a twin-jet anyway over the oceans. Good article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS.
elfynh
Elfyn Hanks 0
I would say that it is winds. If you look at the previous flights it normally uses the more southern/straighter route. However it only appeared to be 20 mins longer than the previous day (nov 6th on the more southern route).
preacher1
preacher1 0
I figure it has to be with Wx of some type, as ETOPS rules don't make a distinction of land and water for diversion. Everybody is flying similar aircraft now, between similar points. Competition itself will keep everyone as close in line as possible.
707pylot
707pylot 0
The winds and the weather will dictate the track. But it has to be a cruise speed difference. The A330 cruise speed is listed as .82 and the B777 is .84. The longer that difference is present, the larger the difference in overall time for each trip. Obviously, the differenct companies will have different planners, pilots, etc. so there are many other opportinities for difference. But basically the B777 is faster.
hardworker7
hardworker7 0
Any possibility routing is reflecting re-release(s) by their dispatchers at critical points on this route. i.e. HNL/KOA and PPT plus the required reserves.

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