I wonder why it wasn't diverted to Angeles City or refueled in Cairns?

 

The QF19 flight was travelling from Sydney to Manila on Sunday afternoon when Philippine authorities closed the airspace due to a power outage, forcing the plane to return to the NSW capital.

The Airbus A330 was flying over Queensland's north coast, just below Papua New Guinea when it made the U-turn.

The plane was refuelled at Sydney before re-departing for Manila, arriving in the early hours of Monday local time.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-02/manila-bound-qantas-flight-qf19-forced-to-turn-around/101822106

 

 

Diversion to any airport in the Philippines was not possible as all their airspace was closed to all air traffic.

 

https://www.flightglobal.com/air-transport/technical-snag-forces-philippines-airspace-closure-on-new-years-day/151497.article

Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn't it be more cost effective for the airline, with no compromise to safety, to have the plane circle near an alternative airport, and if the blackout persists, they land when lower on fuel, and if the blackout is fixed not long after, they land in Manilla, albeit, behind schedule? 

11 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn't it be more cost effective for the airline, with no compromise to safety, to have the plane circle near an alternative airport, and if the blackout persists, they land when lower on fuel, and if the blackout is fixed not long after, they land in Manilla, albeit, behind schedule? 

No airline would operate or plan to operate as it would not be cost effective. Burn fuel for no reason to land at an alternate airport and then the airspace doesn't open for hours, crew run out of duty time, need minimum rest and all pax have to be looked after. Food and accommodation, very costly. What QF did was the most cost effective, to return to departure airport.

 

35 minutes ago, ozfarang said:

No airline would operate or plan to operate as it would not be cost effective. Burn fuel for no reason to land at an alternate airport and then the airspace doesn't open for hours, crew run out of duty time, need minimum rest and all pax have to be looked after. Food and accommodation, very costly. What QF did was the most cost effective, to return to departure airport.

 

I hear what you are saying, but a blackout taking out an international airport for so long, really?

16 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

I hear what you are saying, but a blackout taking out an international airport for so long, really?

It wasn't a blackout at the main airport. The whole countries Air Traffic Management System was down due to electrical failure. No comms, no radar, no lights, so the authorities closed all Philippines airspace. Aircraft were not allowed to transit the Philippines FIR (Flight Information Region)

1 hour ago, ozfarang said:

It wasn't a blackout at the main airport. The whole countries Air Traffic Management System was down due to electrical failure. No comms, no radar, no lights, so the authorities closed all Philippines airspace. Aircraft were not allowed to transit the Philippines FIR (Flight Information Region)

Ok.  I didn't click on the link at the time of posting.  I just took the OP's report of "power outage" to be fact. 

It does appear odd that they would return to Sydney, When Brisbane, Darwin, Cairns or other Asian airports would be closer.

10 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

It does appear odd that they would return to Sydney, When Brisbane, Darwin, Cairns or other Asian airports would be closer.

Not knowing when the Phillipines FIR would reopen best and least costly for QF was return to departure airport. Any other landing port would have incurred accomodation costs and crewing problems for the continuation for the continuation to MNL when reopened