BNE-SFO A330 experiment canned?

[Yarros]

Booked QF59 back in Sept for 3/22. Qantas cancelled the booking on Thursday and the flights seem to have vanished from the schedule. Seems the trans-Pacific A330 experiment has been shelved, at least for the time being. My ex-QF-A330 pilot mate was always dubious. Reckoned we might need water wings if the winds were wrong

 

[justinbrett]

Booked QF59 back in Sept for 3/22. Qantas cancelled the booking on Thursday and the flights seem to have vanished from the schedule. Seems the trans-Pacific A330 experiment has been shelved, at least for the time being. My ex-QF-A330 pilot mate was always dubious. Reckoned we might need water wings if the winds were wrong

BNE-LAX on A330 is still there. If SFO has been shelved I’d say that’s due market conditions. SFO is actually closer to BNE than LAX.

 

[milehighclub]

BNE-SFO is showing end of March and in April. Perhaps just delayed?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

My SYD-SFO was cancelled in March. How does QF put it 'subdued demand'?

 

[Quickstatus]

Reckoned we might need water wings if the winds were wrong

BNE-SFO = 6138nm (great circle)
BNE-LAX = 6223nm

AKL-LAX = 5652nm (QF used to do this route as SYD-AKL-LAX-JFK with an A330-200)

The A330-200 has more range than the A330-300 as the -200 has a centre fuel tank which the -300 does not.
the -200 doing this route would not carry a full payload.

 

[jb747]

The A330-200 has more range than the A330-300 as the -200 has a centre fuel tank which the -300 does not.
the -200 doing this route would not carry a full payload.

Virtually nothing ever takes off with a full payload. That would be an aircraft loaded to max zero fuel weight, and I can't recall ever seeing that.

As for Brisbane, who could plan anything for there at the moment...?

 

[jakeseven7]

Who would fly any thing into Brisbane in the near future let’s be honest. Oh unless it’s to Wellcamp to prop up a white elephant

 

[jpp42]

My ex-QF-A330 pilot mate was always dubious. Reckoned we might need water wings if the winds were wrong

Why such drama? Why not just a refuelling stop in NAN or NOU like any other transpacific flight?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Why such drama? Why not just a refuelling stop in NAN or NOU like any other transpacific flight?

Crew hours, hotel accommodation, catering, etc? Might not be worth it profit wise, or in attracting passengers when there are more convenient flights being offered elsewhere.

 

[jpp42]

Crew hours, hotel accommodation, catering, etc? Might not be worth it profit wise, or in attracting passengers when there are more convenient flights being offered elsewhere.

Oh sure, I get that it may not be commercially successful if the diversions are too frequent. I was referring to the "water wings" comment in particular.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Oh sure, I get that it may not be commercially successful if the diversions are too frequent. I was referring to the "water wings" comment in particular.

yes, I thought you meant as a permanent routing!

 

[jpp42]

Ah yeah, I just meant that a stop in NAN or NOU would be reasonable option when weather is adverse (as opposed to a cancellation). This was done somewhat regularly for the B747 when it was running DFW-BNE. I know that Qantas had an expectation they would require that stop a certain number of times per month based on the typical range of weather conditions.