Covid -19 flights - Unusual flight paths and records set.

As airlines all over the world are laying off staff and parking up their aircraft some are flying to unusual destinations and setting records along the way. Some airlines are introducing repatriation rescue flights, and Brisbane has seen three airlines call in here that we have never seen before.

First it was Qatar who started coming in on the 30th March and continued to come in daily around 5pm for about three weeks using a B777-300.
https://madaboutplanes.blogspot.com/2020/03/qatar-calls-into-brisbane-for-now.html


On the 2nd April we got a one off flight from Nepal Airlines bringing in an A330-200 direct from Nepal.
https://madaboutplanes.blogspot.com/2020/04/another-rear-visitor-to-brisbane.html


Brisbane then had another first on the 5th April in the way of Condor Airlines B767-300.
https://madaboutplanes.blogspot.com/2020/04/another-first-for-brisbane.html


Then last Monday (13th April) a chartered Hi Fly A340-300 flew a repatriation flight from Montevideo to Melbourne. The flight was noteworthy for several reasons, including it being one of the longest A340-300 flights ever.  The flight left Carrasco International Airport outside Montevideo  and flew straight to Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport. It took 16 hours and 9 minutes to fly the 7,667 nautical miles (12,338kms)
https://madaboutplanes.blogspot.com/2020/04/hi-fly-a340-makes-historic-flight.html


Qantas Flight 1 and return Flight 2 would go Sydney - Singapore - London and return. Singapore's Changi Airport banned transit passengers from March 24, leaving Qantas in a bit of a pickle.  So Qantas began doing a 90-minute fuel stop at Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory instead, before continuing the 16-plus hours on to London. It's the first time that Darwin and London will be linked by a direct service.
https://madaboutplanes.blogspot.com/2020/03/qantas-a380-makes-historic-flight_26.html


Yesterday I posted a story about Virgin Australia who flew from Paris to Brisbane non stop for the first time ever. The journey took 19 hours and 43 minutes and flew 9,888 nautical miles (15,913kms.)

Philippine Airlines preformed a special one-off flight from Melbourne to Manila yesterday using an Airbus A330. Flight PR210 depart Melbourne at 10.43am local time for Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Two mercy flights carrying more than 800 Australians stranded overseas will arrive in South Australia this week. The first plane carrying 440 Australians will arrive in Adelaide today, with the second flight carrying another 440 passengers arriving tomorrow. The first flight will depart from Chennai in India before going through Singapore before arriving in Adelaide. The second flight will go via Indonesia.

Indonesian airline Lion Air is said to be operating the two services.

Spanish national airline Iberia announced on Thursday that it is launching a second wave of repatriation flights for Spanish citizens stranded overseas. Sydney is included in this second wave. The Sydney to Madrid flights will depart on the 30th April at 16:10 stopping in Bangkok, Thailand. The aircraft will then carry on to Madrid-Barajas Airport with a scheduled landing time of 09:45 on Monday the 1st May.

Emirates plans to operate three flights from Dubai to Manila from today, the 22nd and 24th to help Filipino citizens return home. These new flights follow the two flights to Manila that were carried out last week which brought Filipino residents home.

Late last month Austrian Airlines chartered the longest flight in the airline’s history,  flying from Sydney to Vienna. The historic 16,000km journey, being performed with their B777, was to repatriate Austrian citizens and took 16 hours and 55 minutes.

On the 15th March  Air Tahiti Nui’s performed a direct flight from Paris to Papeete in French Polynesia . This was the longest domestic flight in the world clocking in at over 15 hours. The route previously stopped in Los Angeles for fuel and passengers, but with the U.S. banning flights from the EU, the flight was forced to make the journey direct. Air Tahiti Nui operated the route with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner which was on the cusp of the aircraft’s range capability.


I am sure over the coming weeks, we can expect to see many more unusual flight routes, and as the world looks forward to aviation resuming operations, we will likely see significant initial downsizing of capacity on previous routes.