Qantas Project Sunrise goes ahead, 12 new A350-1000s ordered

[JessicaTam]

If Sunrise flights for BA led them to starting direct or indirect flights to MEL I’d be very happy.

I believe they are strongly considering LHR-DOH-MEL.

 

[jrfsp]

I believe they are strongly considering LHR-DOH-MEL.

BA also has massive shortage of wide body aircraft with lots of 787 engine issues so I don’t think anything will happen until this is sorted, would be highly dependent on QR being able to codeshare.

 

[AIRwin]

BA maybe but they seem to be giving up on Asia and letting QR (an IAG shareholder) take over..

BA resuming BKK and KUL

 

[elanshin]

BA also has massive shortage of wide body aircraft with lots of 787 engine issues so I don’t think anything will happen until this is sorted, would be highly dependent on QR being able to codeshare.

Whilst true, they are also probably looking at where can they best deploy their fleet and a juicy profitable route might be the preference rather than an extra frequency to <insert US city>

 

[mviy]

The problem with just doing SYD-LHR is you need 3 aircraft due to curfews at both ends. Adding MEL-LHR just requires 2 additional aircraft as MEL has no curfew. So if they do SYD nonstop they should seriously consider MEL as well imo

 

[elanshin]

The problem with just doing SYD-LHR is you need 3 aircraft due to curfews at both ends. Adding MEL-LHR just requires 2 additional aircraft as MEL has no curfew. So if they do SYD nonstop they should seriously consider MEL as well imo

Next minute WSI - LHR!

Although is SYD -LHR not a ~20-21h flight? That could easily be a mid morning departure on both ends or mid day.

 

[Daver6]

I heard the increase in weight was due to increased fireproofing to make the belly tanks safe (since they're right under the cabin). Do you know any more about how that was resolved?

I'm no expert here, but I don't think any amount of fireproofing is going to help if a tank catches fire.

 

[mviy]

Although is SYD -LHR not a ~20-21h flight? That could easily be a mid morning departure on both ends or mid day.

For simplicity let’s assume a midday departure from both SYD and LHR and assume a 21 hour flight in each direction.

Midday departure from SYD arrives in LHR at 10pm (with 11 hour time difference). Probably couldn’t schedule it to that late though as if the flight was delayed you’d be risking missing curfew. Also no flights are scheduled to depart between 11pm and 6am. So the plane would be stuck on the ground.

Midday departure from LHR arrives in SYD at 8pm (with 11 hour time difference)

The problem is not the duration of the flight being too long to turn around. The problem is that with the curfews if just SYD-LHR is done the plane will be stuck on the ground for several hours at least at one end.

Whereas as MEL has no curfew flying e.g. SYD-LHR-MEL-LHR-SYD a plane would not need to be stuck as long on the ground.

 

[dajop]

Next minute WSI - LHR!

Although is SYD -LHR not a ~20-21h flight? That could easily be a mid morning departure on both ends or mid day.

To achieve SYD-LHR with two aircraft,

In the southern summer: 8 pm departure = 6am arrival (assume 21 hr flight) for SYD-LHR
Could turn around and have 11am departure = 6pm arrival into SYD (assume 20 hr flight).

Mid morning departures on both sides wouldn't work with just two aircraft.

MEL on the other hand is more flexible, you could have leave at 1am arriving into LHR at 11am, and depart again at say 3pm, arriving into MEL at 10pm. Then there's the long day flight option 9am departure = 7pm arrival turning at 10pm to arrive into MEL at 5am.

 

[Sprucegoose]

BA also has massive shortage of wide body aircraft with lots of 787 engine issues

They also have a pilot shortage, which won't be fixed overnight. They have deployed some initiatives in this area, but it seems to be a current constraint in their operations.