hotnhigh,
If you're going to quote me, then do it in context. If you re-read my post, you'll see that I don't argue with the concept that aircraft at the end of their reliable life must be replaced.
And it would be easy to take the stats you've produced and deduce that it was all due to maintenance - but life isn't easy and nor should statistical analysis be.
There'd be far more reasons for that kind of poor on-time performance than unserviceable aircraft/maintenance actions alone - Jetstar/Virgin have bad weeks too (losing out to QF), and their fleets are much younger and - so we're led to believe - more reliable. All these technical issues (MNL diversion aside - a unique event) seemed to have occurred since the LAMEs dispute started (and have continued since it ended), so I'm of the opinion that it's still a backlog issue, if it's an issue at all. Maybe it's just as simple as co-incidental occurrences.
There are many airlines around the world flying similar aged B744s and B767s who don't share the spotlight that QF has been unfortunate enough to enjoy recently, so I don't think it's type/age related.
So go off and find the reasons for delays you've informed us of, and post them here so that we might all benefit from USEFUL information.
Keg,
Just saw your reply - should've looked back before I wrote the first one
I hear what you say, but I have to say this; (god...I sounded just like a politician then) I've been subloading ALOT on QF cityflyer services to SYD in the past 7 years and haven't yet experienced other than the usual 5 - 10 minute delays that are caused by everything but maintenance. The longest delay was a 60 minute thunderstorm gate hold prior to pushback one evening. As for the appearance of the aircraft (and as I predominantly fly on the B767s, it's these that I'm referring to), I've noticed that most have been refurbished (can't say I like the new seat fabrics, but that's personal taste. At least they're fresh/new looking seats). Haven't had many IFE U/S flights - in fact I can think of only one where we were forced to read for our entertainment.
And sitting in J class more often than not, I like to sit back, watch and listen to the comments around me - and until it reached the media frenzy of late, I hadn't heard many bleats from the high yielders I was sharing the cabin with.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that although they're not the newest types around, the 76s are still a nice, comfortable aircraft from the passengers' point of view. No doubt they have to be replaced. And they will be from 2011 or so, which is only a couple years away. The 400s? Dunno, but they're not all
really old, so maybe as the 380s come in, the older ones will go, while the newer ones stay until the B789s/B773s start arriving.
I have no doubt that the media-interpreted maintenance 'woes' will disappear in the near term.