QantasLink to replace Q200/Q300s with mid-life Q400s

[Harrison_133]

The second hand Q400s are coming from Westjet.

First is due in October.

 

[iluvoz]

QantasLink have announced fleet renewal plans for the Dash 8 fleet which will see the phase out of the Q200 and Q300 fleets.

14 mid-life Q400s will be acquired to replace 19 Q200s and Q300s. The first aircraft will start to arrive by the end of the 2024 calendar year.

Source: https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/qantas-group-invests-in-regional-turboprop-fleet/

QANTAS will acquire 14 additional mid-life Dash 8-400 aircraft (Q400), bringing the number of Q400 aircraft in the fleet to 45.

Westjet, Canada’s leading low-cost airline, operates a fleet of 35 DeHavilland Dash 8-400 aircraft.


The Westjet Q400s on the Wikipedia webpage lists the fleet size as 47, 12 aircraft more than the number given on the carrier’s homepage.

And that number may be shrinking further given QANTAS will acquire 14 aircraft, with the first aircraft arriving into country by the end of the calendar year.

 

[eastwest101]

Apart from LDH, are there any other QF regional destinations which can’t handle anything larger than a Q300?

I think LDH is the only runway limitation airport that can't currently handle a Dash 8-400?

Then there will be the capacity issue if the market may not support the number of seats for larger aircraft. If the destination is too thin/small for a Q400 then Qantas will have to abandon the route or look into triangulation for some regional routes maybe?

I thought some of the other smaller airports without security screening might be the issue with using Q400s but I see the Federal Government has finally relented and changed policy to an annual pax number threshold for the problematic regional low pax volume and high cost situations, rather than the illogical aircraft specific policy that caused problems and huge costs for local council owned airports e.g. Port Lincoln, Broken Hill, Kingscoate etc

I think if anything the retirement of Qantas smaller Dash 8 -200s & -300s might assist or help save the Rex Saab 340 operations not to mention might free up some of those airframes for other regional operators?

 

[moa999]

So a decade ago WestJet took Qantas's old 767s, as a stop gap to 787s.

And now QantasLink is taking WestJetEncore Q400 hand me downs.

 

[RSD]

So a decade ago WestJet took Qantas's old 767s, as a stop gap to 787s.

And now QantasLink is taking WestJetEncore Q400 hand me downs.

Apparently the Israeli prime minister's "Wings of Zion" is an ex-Qantas 767 too that had a refurbishment to convert it into a VIP + accompanying press transport - complete with anti-missile system.