QF International services
 

I noticed QF9 was operating to London yesterday on Flightradar 24. Similarly I've seen QF93 (to LA from memory?) and others operating in the last week. Are these just repatriation flights for Aussie citizens? They're not listed on the QF website.. Just curious.

The government pays for them as part of the minimum network.

From my understanding, the current QF international network is a mix of freight/repatriation flights. There are flights to/from other international destinations other than just LA and LHR.

There were flights to HKG and AKL also but they were under-utilised so the government scrapped them.

Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai.

A quick look at Flightradar24 reveals the world is very busy!

And yet in Australia the political mileage of (state) border closures is only just beginning

These repatriation flights - are they doing them at cost price? They keep using the phrase “we are helping to get Aussies home” which some have suggested is deliberate wording to make it sound like they are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.

I believe these are freight only flights.
There are also ad hoc repatriation services but the only regular QF international services are currently LAX and LHR.

There were complaints here in NZ about the government charging "extortionate" fees of $NZ5,500 to get on a repatriation flight, I think from India.
A couple of weeks ago, the government did a giant data dump at 4:30 on a Friday, as they do.
When the press dug around in the pile looking for mud to throw at the government, they found that the repatriation flights were costing $NZ15,000 a seat.
When you think about it, flying a plane empty to someplace quite far away, the business class full with a complete change of crews, get to the collect point, fill up with fuel & pax, 'out' crew out of their places and swapped with the "back" crew, then back home again, probably no freight either way, that could add up pretty quickly. :ooh:

I've heard directly from some of the Aussies getting back home (not necessarily on QF) that they're very costly.

Compared to what?

Virgin :}

Some of these repatriation flights were from countries that were still being serviced by Qatar Airways.

Before you say it all Qatar flights are taking pax but are mostly belly cargo.

Qatar are just hanging on also, mostly freight not many pax.