Qantas flight finally leaves London

Qantas will land its first flight from London in Australia on Friday - a day after
foreign airlines restarted similar services.
The flying kangaroo took a bold step in the name of safety by cancelling flight
QF8230 to Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon (London time) and delaying QF32 to Sydney
via Singapore for 12 hours.
Hundreds of passengers languished at Heathrow airport until the flight departed on
Thursday at 12.05am local time (9.05am AEST).
British Airways via Bangkok, Virgin Atlantic via Hong Kong, and Air Malta via
Bangkok services all departed Heathrow earlier on Wednesday and landed around 6am
(AEST) on Thursday in Sydney.
Last week, a volcanic eruption in Iceland spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere,
forcing airports to close across Europe.
But they gradually began reopening on Tuesday, with London's Heathrow back in
operation on Wednesday (AEST).
Qantas executives said safety was the top issue and the airline waited until
Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) gave the thumbs-up for departures
from London.
Qantas corporate affairs spokesman David Epstein said UK meteorological services had
informed the carrier a second volcanic cloud was approaching London airspace before
its scheduled flights were due to depart.
Mr Epstein said Qantas operated under CASA policy that no matter where it was flying
in the world it had to consult the agency first.
"It's a safety first policy ... and it's very frustrating and we stand by it
entirely," Mr Epstein told AAP.
"Other countries have different regulatory systems and the fact is that we haven't
lost a plane in the jet age and other countries have."
Qantas passengers were furious as flights by other international carriers departed
Heathrow.
After a series of delays, QF32 passengers boarded the plane but were then
disembarked after news of the recent volcanic activity.
"Every other airline that has flown out of Heathrow today has done so without any
problem whatsoever," Qantas passenger Justin Davis told AAP from Heathrow airport.
"I've seen British Airways leaving, Finnair leaving, Nigeria (Airlines) leaving -
you name it."
He and others were perplexed by consecutive Qantas announcements saying the airline
needed approval from CASA to depart.
"Qantas has no balls and they need to get final approval from CASA to fly out of
European air space," Mr Davis said.
"The CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) in Europe has let all the European airlines fly
but Qantas can't make a f***ing decision."
Qantas exercised similar caution by not recommencing its services from Australia to
London and Frankfurt until Thursday.
Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways began flying similar routes
on Wednesday.
Like other airlines, Qantas is working to rescue stranded passengers affected by the
shutdown.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said five aircraft had departed Asia on time, four
on Wednesday night and one Thursday morning, and were headed for London to clear a
backlog of 2000 passengers.
"We are applying to Heathrow and Frankfurt for extra slots so that we can operate
extra services to clear the backlog as fast as possible," he said.
"But we still think it will probably take two to three weeks to get there."
Qantas will not be seeking assistance from the federal government, despite running
up costs of between $1.5 and $2 million per day.
"No we don't think this is a taxpayer issue," Mr Joyce said.
"We are digesting these costs ourselves."
Flight QF32 is due in Sydney just after 6am on Friday.