QF Announcement at BNE airport today

[michaele]

Major announcement expected by QANTAS and Brisbane Airports today

Speculation about future long haul services from BNE - could it be 787 related?

 

[mviy]

That sounds like a strong possibility. BNE has been rumoured for a while to be next in line for 787 services after LAX-MEL-PER-LHR.

Will be interesting if there are flights from the US to BNE to PER to Europe and back again.

 

[michaele]

That sounds like a strong possibility. BNE has been rumoured for a while to be next in line for 787 services after LAX-MEL-PER-LHR.

Will be interesting if there are flights from the US to BNE to PER to Europe and back again.

Agreed re 787 to USA. I wonder if they were to create that giant rotation like LAX-MEL-PER-LHR through BNE of the 787 whether it could also be the announcement of BNE to Europe 1 stop (PER) on QF, with matching times for the MEL-PER QF9 leg to offer direct into mainland europe as well.

Surely it would have to be more significant than some QF news to have Palaszczuk turn up as well..?

 

[mviy]

I would expect like with the MEL centred flights, flights to US would be first then flights to Europe via PER added later as more aircraft arrive.

 

[serfty]

I have seen speculation or ORD/SEA/DFW !?

 

[kevrosmith]

Four Dreamliners to be based in BNE

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/qantas-to-base-four-dreamliners-in-brisbane/

No announcement of specific routes

 

[michaele]

I have seen speculation or ORD/SEA/DFW !?

As much as QF would like to think BNE one stop to Europe or changing a 747 to 787 is important, that BNE airport and the premier suggests its bigger than an already serviced route!

 

[moa999]

So listening to a feed on FB.

Aircraft 5,6 will do BNE-LAX replacing a 747 (not stated whether they will also operate LAX-JFK but that would make sense)
Aircraft 7,8 routes still being evaluated but could be Chicago, Dallas, Seattle or Vancouver

 

[kevrosmith]

We’ve said that initially our Dreamliners will replace the routes that our older 747 fly but there are also new destinations we are looking at given the capability of the aircraft. A range of exciting options is on the table that will help drive tourism to the state and we look forward to making that decision in coming months.

From Brisbane, the Qantas Dreamliner is capable of flying non-stop to destinations such as Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco in the United States, Vancouver in Canada, as well as Asia.

Interesting list of possible destinations there.

 

[Himeno]

So listening to a feed on FB.

Aircraft 5,6 will do BNE-LAX replacing a 747 (not stated whether they will also operate LAX-JFK but that would make sense)
Aircraft 7,8 routes still being evaluated but could be Chicago, Dallas, Seattle or Vancouver

The goal of 787s 5-8 is to allow retirement of final 3 non ER 747s. Replacing the 747s on BNE-LAX-JFK will only replace 2 747s.

They can't use the 7th and 8th aircraft on new routes without some other way to replace that last non ER 744.
Other then the seasonal 747 MEL-HKG (and QF15/16) all other 747 routes are ex SYD.
A330s are too small for HND, A380s are too large for JNB and SCL.

They would need to take one of the A380s displaced from QF9/10 and put it on QF127/128 year round, and put 787s on QF15/16 and LAX-JFK. That would get the 3 747s to retire and leave the 6 747s for SFO, HND, JNB and SCL, but may leave the seasonal YVR without an aircraft.

 

[JohnPhelan]

They would need to take one of the A380s displaced from QF9/10 and put it on QF127/128 year round, and put 787s on QF15/16 and LAX-JFK. That would get the 3 747s to retire and leave the 6 747s for SFO, HND, JNB and SCL, but may leave the seasonal YVR without an aircraft.

The seasonal YVR becomes year-round and is operated by 787 numbers 7 and 8 ex BNE.

 

[Himeno]

Interesting list of possible destinations there.

They've said lots of things about possible destinations for 787s over the years, including ICN, TPE, DME, ADD, CPT, among others.

 

[Himeno]

The seasonal YVR becomes year-round and is operated by 787 numbers 7 and 8 ex BNE.

Only assuming at least 1 of the 747s is replaced by a 'displaced' A380, and QF changing QF75/76 from SYD to BNE. (Maybe a SYD-BNE-YVR domestic tag?)

 

[michaele]

The seasonal YVR becomes year-round and is operated by 787 numbers 7 and 8 ex BNE.

Speculation or something else suggesting YVR over other US destinations?

I'd love direct into YVR/Canada. AC make it so easy to get to Canada on their dreamliners.. As someone who's flown into LAX ~15 times the past couple of years, YVR over LAX anyday!

 

[Himeno]

Speculation or something else suggesting YVR over other US destinations?

They already fly there, and likely won't have the aircraft to open another route without reducing/pulling out of another.

The current fleet, known planned retirements and known confirmed orders only allow QF to maintain the current network with limited add hoc seasonal flights.
YVR is currently seasonal because they don't have the aircraft available at other times due to scheduled heavy maintenance on the A380 and 747 fleets. Maintenance which isn't scheduled during peak times when the seasonal and upgraded flights operate (eg HKG A380 and SYD-YVR).

Without pulling out of another existing route, new routes aren't possible until a new order, outside what is currently confirmed, is made.
Then there are routes that are not daily like SFO, JNB and SCL which they may want to make daily.
There is also the seasonal route to KIX between the 3rd and 4th 787 arriving.

 

[Assassin]

Without pulling out of another existing route, new routes aren't possible until a new order, outside what is currently confirmed, is made.
Then there are routes that are not daily like SFO, JNB and SCL which they may want to make daily.
There is also the seasonal route to KIX between the 3rd and 4th 787 arriving.

Are there any 747 routes that they could switch to A330 to free up a 787 for a new destination? I guess the only possibility is the SYD-HKG?

 

[Himeno]

Are there any 747 routes that they could switch to A330 to free up a 787 for a new destination? I guess the only possibility is the SYD-HKG?

The A330s are all committed. They can't start new international routes with them without changing domestic flights to 737s. It seems that the only reason they can do the SYD-KIX flight is by having 787s cover for domestic A330 flights in between MEL-LAX runs (SYD-KIX starts after getting the 3rd 787 and ends when they get the 4th).

The 747 SYD-HKG is likely to be made A380 year round (with 2 A380s made available from the QF9/10 changes).
SYD-HND is 747, but is often full with high W sales. The A330 is too small for the route (and doesn't have W).

Routes like MEL-NRT and SYD-PEK are at amount the max range/flight length limit where a single aircraft can be used for daily flights.

 

[pauly7]

The A330s are all committed. They can't start new international routes with them without changing domestic flights to 737s.

Will be interesting to see what happens here. With VA withdrawing their a330's from domestic work, QF faces less pressure to maintain a wide body trans continental service, unless of course they keep them due to demand and poach disgruntled VA passengers who switch to QF to avoid a trans con VA 737 'experience'.

Hypothetically (like everything on this thread!) I can see a couple of scenarios that free up some A330 flying time from domestic which might allow some creative rejigging.

Certainly they have been efficient moving the 717 fleet over to the east with the demise of the mining boom to take pressure off the 737 fleet allowing new 737 services to be introduced. All in all they are getting quite creative with fleet utilisation - huge step change over the years, has been great to watch.

 

[anat0l]

Will be interesting to see what happens here. With VA withdrawing their a330's from domestic work, QF faces less pressure to maintain a wide body trans continental service, unless of course they keep them due to demand and poach disgruntled VA passengers who switch to QF to avoid a trans con VA 737 'experience'.

Let's not bet on that. QF A330 may be an "experience" but if their bean counters say otherwise they'll swap out the A330s to more "useful" markets, leaving the transcon experience as plain as possible.

VA also apparently have some sort of new 737 J in the pipeline that is going to once again blow QF out of the water. Irrespective of anyone's leaning towards VA or JB, only a fool would not take them seriously and that could be the thing which tips the transcon experience back to at least even keel for VA, even with 737s.

In any case, let's see what all these B787s bring. If QF banks nearly its entire international operations on 787s, 330s and a small handful of 380s (maybe), then either that's a really big international network flown by QF, or somehow some of those aircraft (unlikely the 380s) will be saved for domestic ops anyway (hopefully on a fairly fixed and not "luck of the draw" basis). QF having a rich international network looks great and prestigious on paper, but you'd have to be kidding if you didn't think it was a risk, and this is even in the low fuel era (which is cutting everyone - including Qantas - a huge break...)

 

[Simo]

Will be great for plane spotters