Qantas Turboprop Interior Refresh

[docjames]

Hopefully it's a refresh only not an enhancement (ie denser seating).......

QANTASLINK TURBOPROPS TO RECEIVE CABIN UPGRADE

 

[Mattg]

It looks to me like a refresh only, which is a positive. I'm sure QF would have made a point of it to shareholders if they planned to install an extra row of seats.

 

[QFflyermelbourne]

The bigger question is what the is longer term plan for these birds? Some of the 200s and 300s are already over 20 years old and there is really no aircraft currently on sale to replace them.

 

[Mattg]

The bigger question is what the is longer term plan for these birds? Some of the 200s and 300s are already over 20 years old and there is really no aircraft currently on sale to replace them.

That's true. I read recently that QantasLink wants the NSW government to pay for an extension of the runway at Lord Howe Island Airport because currently the only aircraft in their fleet that can land there are the Dash 8-200s. These aircraft will need to be retired in the next few years.

 

[docjames]

Looking online:

Typical
- 200 37
- 300 50 @30–33"
- 400 82 @30"
Max Capacity
- 200 40
- 300 56
- 400 90 @28"

Qantas config (per Seat Map for the Dash 8 | Qantas)
- 200 36
- 300 50
- 400 74

 

[Mattg]

Not sure if this is true, but I once heard that Qantas has purposely limited the number of seats on the Dash 8-400s to 72 or 74 to avoid having to add a third cabin crew member on each flight. (In Australia, government regulations generally require a minimum ratio of 1 cabin crew to every 36 passengers, although there are some exemptions.)

They could easily add ~6 seats to the Q400s by reducing the seat pitch and removing the pointless empty cupboard in front of row 2, but choose not to.

 

[Jacques Vert]

That's true. I read recently that QantasLink wants the NSW government to pay for an extension of the runway at Lord Howe Island Airport because currently the only aircraft in their fleet that can land there are the Dash 8-200s. These aircraft will need to be retired in the next few years.

When speaking to Narendra Kumar (QL Exec Manager at the time) some 8-10 years ago at a function, he made a similar statement to me. Something along the lines that unless the runway was extended QL would have to eventually pull out of LHI and that the only reasons they were keeping a couple of 200s were for LHI and Dubbo.