Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth)-Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soar

[Infrequent]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

Is the 787 limited by max fuel capacity on the route, or would the 2-4-2 reduction in weight (16*pax + 16*seats + 16*catering + 16*bags, etc) give a few miles extra range (or a few extra minutes endurance, more importantly)?

 

[moa999]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

787-9 MTW is 193 tonnes, so that estimated difference is under 1% so unlikely to make a substantial difference to range I suspect.

Think I'd also prefer
3x3x3 at 32" than
2x4x2 at 28.4" (same seat density)
Noting that Jetstar 787 is 30" pitch.

 

[pauly7]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

At the end of the day, QF have announced a premium heavy configuration for these aircraft. It's pretty obvious what their target market is. The Y seats they sell will be a bonus I think.

Exactly. If they fill J and Prem Y with mostly revenue seats, then Y should take care of itself. Honestly I think the greater public (AKA real world outside of AFF) will just book the flight, and not worry about any of the details we agonise about, will not even realise they are on a 789 or perhaps even transiting in Perth
I think it's a winner.
Not sure if it will get off the ground though but all for them mixing it up a bit!

 

[dajop]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

Exactly. If they fill J and Prem Y with mostly revenue seats, then Y should take care of itself. Honestly I think the greater public (AKA real world outside of AFF) will just book the flight, and not worry about any of the details we agonise about, will not even realise they are on a 789 or perhaps even transiting in Perth
I think it's a winner.
Not sure if it will get off the ground though but all for them mixing it up a bit!

I agree, and I think if I was based in PER I'd give it a go (although I would be looking for an aisle seat), sometimes a few extra hours in a tube makes little difference, if it saves another few hours travelling, particularly for younger travellers who may not yet have the creaks and groans or extra "padding" on the body like many older travellers. .

I am not so sure if the Y cabin would appeal too much for those connecting from elsewhere (at least for those who knew what they were doing), although there may be a few who for political, principled or purely xenophobic reasons be happy to travel to visit the "mother country" without setting foot in Asia or the Middle East...

 

[Quickstatus]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

Exactly. If they fill J and Prem Y with mostly revenue seats, then Y should take care of itself. Honestly I think the greater public (AKA real world outside of AFF) will just book the flight, and not worry about any of the details we agonise about, will not even realise they are on a 789 or perhaps even transiting in Perth
I think it's a winner.
Not sure if it will get off the ground though but all for them mixing it up a bit!

Agree with you there that many passengers do not know what plane they are flying on let alone the particular aspects of the inflight experience. And most don't really care

 

[flightobserver]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

Is the 787 limited by max fuel capacity on the route, or would the 2-4-2 reduction in weight (16*pax + 16*seats + 16*catering + 16*bags, etc) give a few miles extra range (or a few extra minutes endurance, more importantly)?

The 787-9 payload-range graphs suggest the aircraft will be payload restricted only (PER-LHR is approx. 7,800nm by great circle distance). If there was a full plane with crew and each person weighed 75kg and carried their full baggage allowance (status allowance excluded), the plane could make the distance (no cargo). However a 40 degree day in Perth will affect the aircraft's take off performance and require further payload restriction.

 

[Quickstatus]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

PER-LHR is 9009nm by GC. Other factors : Flying west is always more difficult due to prevailing winds, High temps at PER affecting take off performance, and maybe a slight modification to route to avoid Crimea/Ukraine

 

[Happy Trails]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

PER-LHR is 9009nm by GC.

Those miles would be statute, not nautical.

 

[TomVexille]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

PER-LHR is 9009nm by GC. Other factors : Flying west is always more difficult due to prevailing winds, High temps at PER affecting take off performance, and maybe a slight modification to route to avoid Crimea/Ukraine

Those miles would be statute, not nautical.

It's 7,829nm.

 

[Lord Mud]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

none of you have considered the SC hit you will take by not stopping.

 

[yohy?!]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

Exactly. If they fill J and Prem Y with mostly revenue seats, then Y should take care of itself. Honestly I think the greater public (AKA real world outside of AFF) will just book the flight, and not worry about any of the details we agonise about, will not even realise they are on a 789 or perhaps even transiting in Perth
I think it's a winner.
Not sure if it will get off the ground though but all for them mixing it up a bit!

That would be a change to yield management approach by QF - I don't believe they do this now but CX do and it's worked well for them in the past

 

[Quickstatus]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

Damn settings!

 

[nlagalle]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

QF may or may not be 'stupid', but the company is not 'infallible'. It isn't God!

It can and has made arguable mistakes, such as failing to go for 777s, or withdrawing, as JohnPhelan and others have repeatedly pointed out, two B747s that could have been retained to be spares, having been fully depreciated (although there would be a daily cost to retaining them).

There was a very good reason why they didn't go for the 777's at the time. They didn't have the range required and capacity in slot constrained airports.. Dixon then wasn't interested in updating the fleet as he was trying to flog it to a PE bid.

That has resulted in them falling behind.

Bit at the time the A380 was the choice over the 777. Today it's a different story

 

[nlagalle]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

none of you have considered the SC hit you will take by not stopping.

Given the changes made, there is no benefit in transiting and swapping flights now. You might even do better going via PER.

 

[nlagalle]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

I've called it before, however to reiterate, PER-LHR will never happen due to commercial reasons IMHO.

Call it as you like, but it's clearly going to happen unless there are issues with PER.

What commercial reason do you feel would prevent it?

 

[alieninperth]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

Perth has the highest number of British born residents in Australia, that must have had some impact on the decision?

"Around one in every eight residents of Perth was born in the UK (12% or 184,000 people). This is the largest overseas-born population group living in Perth by quite a margin, and the largest overseas-born population group found in any capital city in Australia" - source ABS Social Trends 2014

This is very true, and 10 years ago I would have jumped on this, but now, not so much. Yes there are a lot of the local population who were born in the UK, technically I'm one of them. But when I head 'home' I don't want to go into London, if I did, I would still need to get another flight.

For many of my family and friends we can one stop from pretty much any airport in the UK (including DUB) to any airport in Australia. For those living in the north of England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or the Republic, and even to the south and east of London, GTW/EDI/MAN/NCL/DUB/BHX/GLA-AUH/DOH/DXB-PER/MEL/SYD/BNE/ADL represents a much better option. An option that didnt really exist not so long ago, when it was literally over a day of travel door to door. I can do the same journey today in less than 24 hrs.

Its a good idea, and if I got AAward tickets on the flight I would be stoked, but IMO its just 10 years too late for me, and I'm unlikely to patronise the service.

 

[ajw373]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

So the middle east is an old acquaintance to the airline

Yes. One reason I laugh when people talk about the current route not being a true Kangaroo route as it goes via the middle east.

 

[Happy Trails]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

From The West Australian:

Perth risks losing a revolutionary non-stop air service from Perth to London because of a commercial impasse between Qantas and Perth Airport over a $25 million upgrade to Qantas facilities.

Qantas wants to consolidate its operations at the domestic terminal on the western side of the airport’s runways at terminals three and four.
With a groundbreaking new aircraft, the airline refuses to bus passengers across the tarmac. It wants efficient connections to the rest of its national network to make the service work and to beat similar connections through Singapore or Dubai.



https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/33209028/qantas-in-row-over-london-flights/#page1

 

[Pleb Status]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

A bus/train transfer is required in SYD/BNE to change from the domestic to international terminal v.v.

I would think QF would actually fly SYD-PER-LHR in any case, limiting the actual number of domestic transfers in PER to less than 100.

This is just another example of a company who made more than a billion dollars profit last year wanting corporate welfare from the Government.

 

[Quickstatus]

Re: Qantas: non-stop Australia (Perth) -Europe (London) Boeing 787 flights set to soa

Its a bit more complicated than calling it corporate welfare. The airline is not the only one to potentially benefit from this pivot to a "western hub". WA will/could also benefit. Its called infrastructure. Though its true that the airline should have thought this out a bit better before lots of $$ were sunk into the international terminal. Both parties seem to be in a standoff at the moment but in the end bussing passengers is problematic. Better to do it right the first time.