Originally Posted by framer
It would be interesting to break down the cost of an event like this.
The dumped fuel is just the tip of the iceberg. Essentially all the costs related to this flight are 'wasted' as this flight will have generated no revenues. (All figures US$)
1) Fuel: both the used and the dumped portions. Assuming near MTOW take-off around 175 tons will have been used up to get down to MLAW, some of it (~15-20) burned, the balance dumped. At the current price of ~$500 per metric ton, the fuel will have cost ~$ 85-90k
2) Because of the Australian quarantine laws any food (even untouched) coming off an arriving international flight must be incinerated. Knowing the rather thick-headed approach of Oz authorities on this matter, I assume this was enforced in this case too (does not apply to bottled drinks with unbroken seal, those can be re-used). For such a long flight there is at least $20 worth of catering on board per pax (averaged accross classes), for ~350 pax that is $7k
3) Rough rule of thumb is that with financing included monthly ownership cost is around 1% of asset acquisition cost. Don't have the details but as launch customer QF would have received the 380s for a big discount, lets say $150 million each. That translates into 1.5/month. Assuming an average daily utilisation of around 18 hours, that comes to to roughly $3k per hour for the privilege of a sight-seeing flight over the pacific. The flight took 2.5 hours (FR24) so that is another $7.5k
4) Big ticket maintenance items like engines and landing gear tick on the cycle, not the hour. This flight used up an available cycle before shop visit for all, I am not privy to QF figures but based on my experience I'd dare guess around $3000 per engine and another $1000 per main gear strut, so that is another $16k
5) Sydney airport is not run as a charity, this flight will have incurred the same landing and terminal navigation charges as any other, though this may have been counted as a technical rather than a commercial landing, in which case a 50% discount applies. Still, that will be around $10k for a 380.
6) Crew costs. Both filght and cabin crew will have used up 2.5 hours of their annual 900 limit. Again without knowing actual salaries I'd dare guess that total annual salaries for all crew on board (together with all taxes and employer contrbutions) would reach $1million, rounded that is another $3k. Add to that the need to position this crew (or another) to Dallas as they will be missing for a future return leg, and we're talking at least another $5k.
7) Accommodating passengers. Assuming that a replacement aircraft could be organised this "only" means a night's hotel plus meals. Given that airlines have contracts with hotels for such eventualities this would not be at rack rates, but probably at around $50-60 per passenger (I'm sure there are hotels on both ends who base their business on such flight disruptions. At big airports there is always a cancelled or delayed flight every other day. S**t hits the fan when due to weather ALL flights are delayed and everything fills up). Assume 700 pax at the higher rate, that will be $42k.
8) Rerouting passengers on another airline. This is the one that hurts the most, as in this case the collected revenues need to be forfeited. Assuming that only 200 of the 700 needed to be re-routed, and an average fare of $1k per direction, that is still $200k lost revenue (but probably more, as the time sensitive F & C customers will need to be re-accommodated in a higher proportion.)
Summing it up, IF the flight will be able to depart with a delay, the direct cost of this little glitch will be in the magnitude of $150k (135 listed above, plus at least another 15 I did not think of), rising to 200k if passangers need to be accommodated for the duration of the delay, PLUS at least another 200k in lost revenues if a part of the pax need re-routing on other airlines.
Edit:Just saw Wally777's post that landing may have been above MLAW, in that case of course the corresponding fuel cost figures are reduced.