Qantas may still need to stop in Dubai on Perth-London flights

I have recently heard that Qantas will still need to stop in Dubai en-route to London about 20-30% of the time due to weather issues. Any comments?

Pray for good weather!!!

It's a bit like the QF8 sometimes stops in NAN or BNE - extreme headwinds can slow you down to the extent that you don't have enough fuel to make it the whole way. A DXB stop would certainly be a possibility, but I would think it more likely that it would be somewhere only an hour or two out of London - so somewhere in Europe. Also would depend on where the delay conditions occurred - might well be after the aircraft has passed DXB anyway.

SYD-DFW/Reverse had a similar problem, but they ironed it out. However, the media made a big deal about poor planning etc. I would expect them to have few issues based on wind, weather etc. I would say 4-6 months after the initial flight, they would do this very professionally without any dramas even with weather events.

I would be more concerned about return leg. Nearest suitable alternate airport for Perth is Port Headland! Not sure aircraft has capability of flying to Perth and then do a diversion. May have to land enroute if Perth forecast requies an alternate just to stay legal - Not sure of great circle route they are going to fly but likely Dubai, Male in Maldives, India or Christmas island. Africa may also come into play due winds. Not sure i would want to stop in Kenya or Ethiopia at moment! Jakarta or Singapore also may be in play.

Learmonth, Meekathara and Kalgoorlie cant be pe plaanned as alternates for international flights due lack of customs and immigration. Learmonth has been used in past but passengers are not allowed to leave aircraft.

Aniljak,

Qantas hVe been conducting research on the weather conditions for this route for the last two years. I think you’ll find diversions will be pretty rare. That of course isn’t to say they won’t happen, but it will be a rare event.

7News got access to Qantas' operation centre and took a video of the route. I had to take 4 screenshots of the video and moved them around to make the one big map (hence it's quite blury etc) but it gives a good idea of the route they plan to take.

There is also this map which shows Singapore, New Dehli and northern Europe as possible diversion's to that route and not that in both versions Dubai is nowhere near the planned route (again the photo comes from 7 news Perth).

Dm12: Be aware that if no customs then passengers required to remain on plane. Turns trip from 17 hours to over 20!

There will be more than two flight crew, more likely four. Captain first office and two second officers. They need two two person crews to keep the hours inside the limits.

QF9, 2 hours to go to London. Over Romania currently.