Qantas to wet-lease E190s from Alliance

[HS-TQE]

Wasn't sure whether to post in here considering Alliance does operate some Qld RPT regional routes under their own right via Qld Government contracts.

If not the right subforum, then please move where appropriate.

The E190s are coming from American Airlines (originally delivered to US Airways). This is on top of the previous announced 14 aircraft, so 30 E190s overall.

https://company-announcements.afr.com/asx/aqz/245a2c5a-40bb-11eb-b2f4-5e5dd58040d2.pdf

 

[Jacques Vert]

Just came across this media/ASX release:

 

[jakeseven7]

Big news with QF introducing small jet capacity. Clearly confident they can make it work where VA1 failed.

Wonder if they will be painted out in QFLink colours?


----------

Qantas has announced it has come to an agreement with Brisbane-based Alliance Airlines to utilise three of its Embraer E190 aircraft, and cash in on an expected post-COVID surge in domestic tourism.

Under the new three-year deal, Alliance will operate three E190 regional aircraft, based in Darwin and Adelaide, on behalf of Qantas’ regional offshoot, QantasLink.

The agreement also includes the possibility of expanding Qantas’ access to Alliance aircraft by a further 11 E190 regional jets, dependent on market conditions.

Initial routes touted under the deal include Adelaide-Alice Springs, Darwin-Alice Springs, and Darwin-Adelaide.

Qantas ups domestic capacity with Alliance E190 deal

Australia's Leading News Source in Aviation

australianaviation.com.au

 

[Daver6]

I can see two possible reasons for doing this. Either QF believes they need more aircraft than they have capacity for or that it is more cost efficient to keep QF aircraft parked somewhere and crew stood down while wet leasing these.

 

[AIRwin]

Sounds like some QFi staff will join QQ?

 

[dajop]

Big news with QF introducing small jet capacity. Clearly confident they can make it work where VA1 failed.

Yes, but different operating model to the VA1 own and operate model. It's the way US aviation works (except the ULCC's and SouthWest), separate companies operating regional jet services on behalf of the bigger airlines who focus on their jet ops. Not to mention the QF brand premium.

 

[milehighclub]

Sounds like some QFi staff will join QQ?

We've been told "Alliance is keen to also provide opportunities for Qantas pilots and cabin crew to operate the E190s, particularly with international markets expected to take several years to fully recover."

 

[Hvr]

Sounds like some QFi staff will join QQ?

Are there any QFi staff based in ADL? If not would it be worthwhile transferring to either ADL or DRW?

Would they retain wages and conditions under their current employment conditions or have to accept whatever is on offer from QQ?

What priority would they get to rejoin QFi if/when international travel resumes?

Lots of questions to be asked and answered for the staff before they would want to make a decision.

 

[milehighclub]

Are there any QFi staff based in ADL?

Quite a few commuters out of ADL

Would they retain wages and conditions under their current employment conditions or have to accept whatever is on offer from QQ?

There are QFi crew working at Network in PER. They are on secondment and work under Network EBA. I imagine the same thing would apply here.

What priority would they get to rejoin QFi if/when international travel resumes?

If it is done under a secondment, you would return to International when your secondment is finished. There have been no discussions about how International crew will return to scheduled flying.

 

[flydoc]

some commentary from the QantasLink boss and I :

“We know this current climate of snap border closures will pass...” said Mr Gissing.

Hopefully but no guarantees, although today’s responses to a COVID positive case in Melbourne have been a little more proportionate than previously.

“Instead of one or two flights a day with a larger aircraft, we can offer three or four flights a day on the E190, which gives customers in these cities a lot more choice about when they travel.

We can offer 3 or 4 flights a day, but whether we will obviously depends on demand. The B717s only ever ran 2 return DRW-ASP services daily in their heyday.

“We’ve worked with Alliance for many years and they have flown literally thousands of flights for Qantas over that time, with the same service and standards that customers expect when they buy a Qantas ticket.”

Yes, quite. Oh and our new partner QQ also has a very close relationship with our newly minted competitor, but there are no hard feelings. None. This is business.

QANTAS GROUP TARGETS DOMESTIC GROWTH WITH ALLIANCE AIRLINES CAPACITY DEAL

Keep up to date with Qantas' latest news and information, media releases, articles, images and more with the Qantas News Room.

www.qantasnewsroom.com.au

Potentially good news for some QFi staff.
QQ are a savvy bunch.
Will be following this with interest

 

[AIRwin]

QF flights operated by QQ's E190 commences 25 May, following CASA approval:

https://company-announcements.afr.com/asx/aqz/a05edf79-9286-11eb-aa66-a65b42e68e53.pdf

 

[henrus]

Looks like flights are already for sale:

The first flight that QQ operate for QF will likely be QF1958:
Flight info now shows as operated by E190:

Seat map shows these are fitted out with Business and Economy class:



The schedule also looks quite fixed with the following loaded until the end of schedule:

Weekdays
Aircraft 1
QF1958 6:00am DRW - 8:00am ASP
QF1955 8:40am ASP - 10:40am ADL
QF1950 11:20am ADL - 3:05pm DRW
QF1960 4:05pm DRW - 6:05pm ASP
QF1957 6:45pm ASP - 8:45pm ADL
QF1952 9:25pm ADL - 1:10am+1 DRW

Aircraft 2
QF1954 6:15am ADL - 8:25am ASP
QF1959 9:05am ASP - 11:05am DRW
QF1951 11:45am DRW - 3:20pm ADL

Aircraft 3
QF1956 1:25pm ADL - 3:35pm ASP
QF1961 4:15pm ASP - 6:15pm DRW
QF1953 6:55pm DRW - 10:30pm ADL

Saturdays
Aircraft 1
QF1948 6:00am DRW - 8:00am ASP
QF1955 8:40am ASP - 10:40am ADL
QF1950 11:20am ADL - 3:05pm DRW

Aircraft 2
QF1954 6:15am ADL - 8:25am ASP
QF1959 9:05am ASP - 11:05am DRW
QF1951 11:45am DRW - 3:20pm ADL

Sundays
Aircraft 1
QF1956 1:25pm ADL - 3:35pm ASP
QF1961 4:15pm ASP - 6:15pm DRW
QF1953 6:55pm DRW - 10:30pm ADL

Aircraft 2
QF1960 4:05pm DRW - 6:05pm ASP
QF1957 6:45pm ASP - 8:45pm ADL
QF1952 9:25pm ADL - 1:10am+1 DRW


It seems all three aircraft will be kept quite busy except for weekends when only two will be used.

 

[jakeseven7]

Who’s up for the first QF Embraer flight....?

 

[henrus]

Who’s up for the first QF Embraer flight....?

It's annoying the very first is from Darwin (cost and location).

If the ver yfirst was the ADL-ASP one then I'd take it because it's just $135 from ADL right now and there is a direct Virgin flight back to Brisbane that afternoon (~$190) plus about $120 to positon down to Adelaide and some overnight accommodation.

Sadly the very first DRW-APS is $362 in economy and I've got other things on my AU/NZ bucket list of travel up first. It's also rather annoying (but likely done on purpose) that these flights aren't sold under a single flight number as some flights through ASP used to be in the past, this would make the through fares from ADL-DRW and vv much cheaper.

 

[AIRwin]

5 aircraft to be based in ADL:

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/new-routes-more-flights-as-jets-to-call-adelaide-home/

 

[PineappleSkip]

It's annoying the very first is from Darwin (cost and location)

Not to mention DRW-ASP in J for only $1,300. No wonder QF is flogging the NT for all it's worth.

Don't suppose there are any pics of the interiors about yet?

Cheers skip

 

[flydoc]

The schedule also looks quite fixed with the following loaded until the end of schedule:

Weekdays
Aircraft 1
QF1958 6:00am DRW - 8:00am ASP
QF1955 8:40am ASP - 10:40am ADL
QF1950 11:20am ADL - 3:05pm DRW
QF1960 4:05pm DRW - 6:05pm ASP
QF1957 6:45pm ASP - 8:45pm ADL
QF1952 9:25pm ADL - 1:10am+1 DRW

Aircraft 2
QF1954 6:15am ADL - 8:25am ASP
QF1959 9:05am ASP - 11:05am DRW
QF1951 11:45am DRW - 3:20pm ADL

Aircraft 3
QF1956 1:25pm ADL - 3:35pm ASP
QF1961 4:15pm ASP - 6:15pm DRW
QF1953 6:55pm DRW - 10:30pm ADL

Saturdays
Aircraft 1
QF1948 6:00am DRW - 8:00am ASP
QF1955 8:40am ASP - 10:40am ADL
QF1950 11:20am ADL - 3:05pm DRW

Aircraft 2
QF1954 6:15am ADL - 8:25am ASP
QF1959 9:05am ASP - 11:05am DRW
QF1951 11:45am DRW - 3:20pm ADL

Sundays
Aircraft 1
QF1956 1:25pm ADL - 3:35pm ASP
QF1961 4:15pm ASP - 6:15pm DRW
QF1953 6:55pm DRW - 10:30pm ADL

Aircraft 2
QF1960 4:05pm DRW - 6:05pm ASP
QF1957 6:45pm ASP - 8:45pm ADL
QF1952 9:25pm ADL - 1:10am+1 DRW


It seems all three aircraft will be kept quite busy except for weekends when only two will be used.

Some tweaks to the schedule already, bringing the timings forward about an hour for ‘Aircraft 3’ weekdays / ‘Aircraft 1’ Sunday’s:

QF1956 now departs ADL at 1230
QF1956 now departs ASP at 1530
QF 1953 now departs DRW at 1810

 

[flydoc]

Some tweaks to the schedule already, bringing the timings forward about an hour for ‘Aircraft 3’ weekdays / ‘Aircraft 1’ Sunday’s:

QF1956 now departs ADL at 1230
QF1956 now departs ASP at 1530
QF 1953 now departs DRW at 1810

Typo- QF1961 new ETD ASP 1530

 

[antycbr]

Alliance is now operating the centre routes (ADL-ASP-DRW) on behalf of QF utilising E190 equipment. There’s a sticker on the door noting that the service is QantasLink and these aircraft will not in theory rotate to QQ coded service or future VA service.

Service on board is QF product and announcements delivered by QQ staff in QQ uniforms. The staff member on today’s QF1961 ASP-DRW was dong her fourth QF J service and quite frankly did a better job than QF mainline 737 J service we experienced SYD-ASP.

I do miss the VA E190s as they’re great from a pax point of view. The QQ aircraft are quite business heavy with 10 seats in a 1-2 config. 1A is by itself and has excellent legroom. The 1-2 config means a tiny locker on the A seats side.

While we were in ASP a Silkair 737-Max aircraft (9V-MBE)did a circuit to Mount Isa and back, and then departed back to Singapore. Perhaps the APAS storage is going to start emptying… but still a long way to go for CX and SQ to get their fleets on the move.

I’ve attached the meals served in J on this afternoons service. My partner took advantage of the free flowing wine more than once… alas I had to drive the rental.

 

[HS-TQE]

Not QF related, but the Alliance E190s starting to make its way on its own regional (gov subsidised services) as well as some FIFO services filling in for the usual Fokkers.

UYK seen operating CNS-MCY-CNS (joint initiative of the Sunshine Coast & Cairns councils) in recent days.

https://www.facebook.com/SunshineCoastAirport/posts/1902504539923822