New A330s with crew rest areas coming.

[KCMil]

Best story yet is that the 3 A330's arriving through this year are said to have full crew rest area fitted behind flight deck, as in proper bunks. I dare say that wouldn't be getting fitted at great cost if it wasn't considered necessary.

 

[Fruitcake]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

And the best story yet is that the 3 A330's arriving through this year are said to have full crew rest area fitted behind flight deck, as in proper bunks.

The obvious follow-up question - what length route is required for crew rest facilities to be necessary? Australia to Japan perhaps? I wouldn't think most of Australia to SE Asia would require it.

 

[eastwest101]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

best story yet is that the 3 A330's arriving through this year are said to have full crew rest area fitted behind flight deck, as in proper bunks. I dare say that wouldn't be getting fitted at great cost if it wasn't considered necessary.

New A330s with crew rest areas also good news - are these new ones replacing the older A330s on transcon PER-SYD-MEL services or are they in addition to the existing A330s?

 

[eastwest101]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

The obvious follow-up question - what length route is required for crew rest facilities to be necessary? Australia to Japan perhaps? I wouldn't think most of Australia to SE Asia would require it.

Oh please god let this be true - but the speculation could be between Japan, Hawaii (unlikely), Singapore (regulatory probs?), Hong Hong (no freinds there?) Bangkok or even mainland China?

 

[markis10]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

Oh please god let this be true - but the speculation could be between Japan, Hawaii (unlikely), Singapore (regulatory probs?), Hong Hong (no freinds there?) Bangkok or even mainland China?

VA have VS in HKG, and I would not be surprised if they took over the route ex HKG to Australia, the A340 is struggling with award availability very high, might have to use up those points ASAP.

 

[777]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

The obvious follow-up question - what length route is required for crew rest facilities to be necessary? Australia to Japan perhaps? I wouldn't think most of Australia to SE Asia would require it.

I think PER-AUH is an interesting opportunity.

 

[KCMil]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

Mr Borghetti poured cold water on both Hawaii and mainland china from the day he started at VA. When he was reorganising the INTL ops he said outright that there is no money in Hawaii and mainland China and India are too intensive as most people fly into one port and out of another which means having to operate to multiple ports. This is an enormous infrastructure set up and cost which he is not interested in. Hence his mad dash to tie up with others.
When they started the codeshare with Silk Air (SQ) to singapore from DRW 4Xweekly Mr B did say that there was scope for VA metal to pick up the service on the other 3 days if demand was necessary, so SQ is obviously an option there. But that wouldn't require A330's with crew rest. Nor would Japan. Current domestic crew can operate up to 9h45m and don't need crew rest facilities. So it would have to be a little farther afield.

And I definitely agree VA crew are starting to look a little tired, particularly on E jet with the CS taken out of the loop to serve up to 6 J now. And if you get a four crew compliment on an 800 series boeing going MEL-SYD as I did last week, the crew were finishing service on descent. Apparently not all services have the 5 crew anymore something around time of day and service type etc...

Once the wireless trials on VH-YID are complete they can commence fitment to all a/c and again MR B did say that included Ejets and A330. They def need to fit something for at least J to place tablets whilst eating, and perhaps something in Y on back of headrests like a rail to hang tablets over. Assuming that they will load additional tabs for guests who don't have their own! I dare say that they have too many bigger fish to fry at the moment with Sabre.

 

[eastwest101]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

I think PER-AUH is an interesting opportunity.

Interesting - I am sure its been discussed before but can new A332's or possibly A333's have the legs to do SYD or MEL to AUH direct? Or is Perth a logical A330 base for VA in the future?

 

[777]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

Interesting - I am sure its been discussed before but can new A332's or possibly A333's have the legs to do SYD or MEL to AUH direct? Or is Perth a logical A330 base for VA in the future?

I'm pretty sure that PER-AUH is within a new build A330 range but SYD or MEL to AUH is a fair bit beyond it.

PER-AUH makes plenty of sense to me: it has feed at either end (particularly once VA move terminals in PER), it is a clear gap in the network, it puts pressure on QF who offer nothing on their own metal there, etc.

 

[Fruitcake]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

I believe QF's AKL-LAX was one of the longest A330 routes in the world (6504 miles great circle). East coast Australia to AUH is ~7300 mi, a fair bit further - probably not doable. But PER-AUH is only 5605 mi.

 

[The Rok]

And that might play with the fact that EY said last month that their plans to do PER-AUH were being put back by a few years due to a shortage of aircraft.

It's still a pretty long flight on an A330 when you could do it on EK in a 777 or from next year on an A380!

 

[777]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

I'm also biased towards PER because it think it opens up some excellent value redemption opportunities. Assuming you can make your own way to PER then 70k to AUH in J could break up a trip quite nicely without blowing all your points.

 

[777]

It's still a pretty long flight on an A330 when you could do it on EK in a 777 or from next year on an A380!

At 10 abreast in the 777 i'd take the a330 thanks!

 

[eastwest101]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

I'm pretty sure that PER-AUH is within a new build A330 range but SYD or MEL to AUH is a fair bit beyond it.

PER-AUH makes plenty of sense to me: it has feed at either end (particularly once VA move terminals in PER), it is a clear gap in the network, it puts pressure on QF who offer nothing on their own metal there, etc.

That is what I was thinking as well. Allows for high aircraft utilization PER-East Coast and also PER-AUH. After all QF has basically given the PER market away to its competitors anyway so makes perfect sense to base A330s in PER.

 

[rtyuiop]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

East coast to India would be one possibility, but it firstly might be short enough not to need crew rest, and secondly doesn't make sense to just fly into one Indian city without a partner to get around the country. Even then I think I'd prefer to go via SQ...

 

[smit0847]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

I wonder if these new A330s will have a different J product then. An angled lie-flat isn't very competitive against EK, QR, CX, SQ etc our of PER. I would have thought any plane intended to do flights long enough to need a crew rest would need to have fully-flat beds in J.

 

[dandandan]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

I think Etihad has tied up with Jet Airways very recently so India could be an option, with Jet doing the runs into Europe and around India.

East coast to India would be one possibility, but it firstly might be short enough not to need crew rest, and secondly doesn't make sense to just fly into one Indian city without a partner to get around the country. Even then I think I'd prefer to go via SQ...

 

[markis10]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

I wonder if these new A330s will have a different J product then. An angled lie-flat isn't very competitive against EK, QR, CX, SQ etc our of PER. I would have thought any plane intended to do flights long enough to need a crew rest would need to have fully-flat beds in J.

Puzzling post considering they are lie flat Webber product used by SQ.

 

[eastwest101]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

I wonder if these new A330s will have a different J product then. An angled lie-flat isn't very competitive against EK, QR, CX, SQ etc our of PER. I would have thought any plane intended to do flights long enough to need a crew rest would need to have fully-flat beds in J.

Interesting points - and I also noticed on the official Airbus site that the brand new A332 and A333's come with removable and or reconfigurable crew rest areas as an option. That opens up different configurations and fleet flexibility and possible clues about potential of older A330 getting refits. All speculation of course.

If indeed the crew rest areas are coming then surely that points more towards flight times of >8 or 9 hours? May also depend on how flight crew hours work out and how much they utilize the aircraft.

 

[atreides]

Re: E190 J class conversions start

I would really laugh my cough off if it was PER/ADL AUH.