Qantas charters to Islamabad
 

Two flights were operated to Pakistan's capital from Darwin on 16th Sep and Sydney on 22nd, to pick up Australian citizens evacuated from Afghanistan, 787 was used..

Yes it was

Annnnnddddd….??

Shouldn't you be posting this pointless crap in a spotters forum?

If you want to talk about an interesting route you could have mentioned the fact that the new ADL - HBA route was flown the other day.

Operated by Alliance airlines while ADL based 737 crews and HBA based 717 crews are stood down….

Caster, thanks I’m interested, I don’t check spotters sites like cranky morno
Flikid, I’m just thankful there is at least some work

Qantas are operating repatriation flights from all over the world? So I guess Islamabad is not unusual.

Disgraceful…but not surprising

Interesting from the point of view that Islamabad is only a stones throw from Kabul, and there would be some higher risk being accepted flying to such a destination.

Just asking. Could it maybe have something to do with the fact that Alliance continues to operate and perhaps stood down crew would require refresher training and that may not be worth it for just one or two flights????

Not taking anyone's side, just asking the question....

No doubt the dozen or so orphaned kids plus minders that were evacuated. Harrowing experience smuggling them overland into Pakistan by all accounts.

Why didn’t they use Jetstar 787s , many more seats and very cheap labour!

Not really, even for a world champion stone thrower --- the airport is also a military base and the security is a tight as you are going to get in that part of the world -- and that is in "normal" times.
I speak as someone who knows the area quite well, having once "worked" as a contractor for PIA.
Tootle pip!!

PS: It's about 200nm.

Sorry Lead. New Islamabad airport opened a few years ago, so no longer joint military.

Peshawar is closer to Kabul and is joint military. Was there last week.

halas

Yes that is why I did the post, QF flying to a risky part of the world, when they could have chartered Hifly or some east Asian carrier to do the flights for them.

Since then QF has operated more flights to ISB to/from Darwin, using A330-200, apparently A330 and 787 were there together on a particular day in a pic taken by a guy on his insta account.

Ummm! So if you think it’s too risky for Qantas to fly there, why do you think it’s OK for Hifly or some East Asian charter to fly there?

Hardly a surprise,the writing was on the wall when the deal was done for the dozen or more e jets to be painted in qf colours.

Because east Asian carriers continued serving Pakistan even in the worst of times and Hifly is a relatively unknown charter airline from Portugal. also Hifly had been operating flights for PIA for almost a year.

So you’re implying that QF can’t manage a new destination? Big call that.

QF is a terrorist target because it is a symbol of Australia. Have you seen the security at any Australian embassy or high commission ? Putting the flag carrier into a part of the world where it was recently involved in fighting a war alongside the great Satan might not be a good idea. It would be better to use an airline from a country not involved.

I've found it interesting to compare the US/British/Australian embassies with those from small neutral countries. In the first case the premises is usually a fortress, in the second the facility is often in a normal office block with little more security than any other tenant.

As opposed to flying into Indonesia, Thailand and the Phillipines (one could also say NZ as well) where there have been extremist attacks in recent years.