Alan Joyce just confirmed the order: https://australianaviation.com.au/2022/ ... -12-a350s/

12x A350-1000
20x A321XLR
20x A220-300

JQ first Neo is due in July 2022

https://simpleflying.com/rex-regional-express-delta-air-lines-interline-agreement/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=echo&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1VFtWgz02bPdIbuyEvc4WhZTqXOK1b6-HLM48TW9BD5OF0lJ0gZjq-uHk#Echobox=1651443947

Looks like Delta as a new partner in Australia, albeit not on the same level as VA…

tinpusher007 wrote:

https://simpleflying.com/rex-regional-express-delta-air-lines-interline-agreement/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=echo&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1VFtWgz02bPdIbuyEvc4WhZTqXOK1b6-HLM48TW9BD5OF0lJ0gZjq-uHk#Echobox=1651443947

Looks like Delta as a new partner in Australia, albeit not on the same level as VA…

I think you're overstating the meaning of an interline. DL appears to still be interline with VA even after their commercial agreement comes to an end, and UA interline with QF/JQ. It simply gives the ability to book each others' capacity on the same ticket, something that is very common even amongst competitors. It usually takes a certain degree of bad blood to block interlining.

DL interlines with both QF and VA, DL will continue to use both QF and VA in places where ZL doesn't currently serve.

The interline agreement only puts ZL as their preferred Australian partner over QF and VA, similar to how AA prioritises QF and UA prioritises VA before looking to other carriers.

Interesting to note a slight change in the livery of the A220 since the initial announcement late last year. Last year, the A220 was in standard Qantas livery whereas today's graphics have it as Qantaslink. Probably not surprising as this means they will be crewed by cheaper non-mainline staff in the same way the current 717s are.

SCFlyer wrote:

DL interlines with both QF and VA, DL will continue to use both QF and VA in places where ZL doesn't currently serve.

The interline agreement only puts ZL as their preferred Australian partner over QF and VA, similar to how AA prioritises QF and UA prioritises VA before looking to other carriers.

The biggest potential issue here is frequency. A delayed arrival of a DL A350 may mean there is no convenient ZL service for pax to connect to which either means a long wait or potentially costly reticketing onto VA or QF.

RyanairGuru wrote:

As an aside, I may have misinterpreted their quarterly financial update but it looks like they paid down $1bn in debt in one quarter. That’s impressive!

Not quite. Net debt was A$ 5.5 billion, down from A$ 6.1 billion a year ago, but up from A$ 5.3 two years ago (this is what they pointed out in the presentation). I suspect that much of the net debt decline was due to the disposal of the Mascot properties. The big chunk generated A$ 802 million in cash flow which Qantas indicated at the time was to be used to pay down debt, some of which may have even been encumbered against the property. Given that the decline in net debt is smaller than the proceeds, it may indicate that net debt net of the transaction may have even increased, albeit, we don't know what proportion of the A$ 802 million was applied to debt or possibly used for capital investment elsewhere. Also, gross debt only decreased about A$200 million, less than the decline in net debt.

tullamarine wrote:

Interesting to note a slight change in the livery of the A220 since the initial announcement late last year. Last year, the A220 was in standard Qantas livery whereas today's graphics have it as Qantaslink. Probably not surprising as this means they will be crewed by cheaper non-mainline staff in the same way the current 717s are.

Yes, pay rates will be going down for pilots flying much of the QF domestic schedule. I expect A220s to eventually take over a lot of the domestic network currently flown by 738s, with A321s taking on the peak and high volume services.

evanb wrote:

RyanairGuru wrote:

As an aside, I may have misinterpreted their quarterly financial update but it looks like they paid down $1bn in debt in one quarter. That’s impressive!

Not quite. Net debt was A$ 5.5 billion, down from A$ 6.1 billion a year ago, but up from A$ 5.3 two years ago (this is what they pointed out in the presentation). I suspect that much of the net debt decline was due to the disposal of the Mascot properties. The big chunk generated A$ 802 million in cash flow which Qantas indicated at the time was to be used to pay down debt, some of which may have even been encumbered against the property. Given that the decline in net debt is smaller than the proceeds, it may indicate that net debt net of the transaction may have even increased, albeit, we don't know what proportion of the A$ 802 million was applied to debt or possibly used for capital investment elsewhere. Also, gross debt only decreased about A$200 million, less than the decline in net debt.

Apologies I've now seen the trading statement which indicates net debt at A$ 4.5 billion at the end of April. That is a substantial decline. We don't have financial statements for this so we don't know the details, particularly gross versus net debt and how they did this, but it's a very positive development with a cycle of rising interest rates ahead of us.

evanb wrote:

evanb wrote:

RyanairGuru wrote:

As an aside, I may have misinterpreted their quarterly financial update but it looks like they paid down $1bn in debt in one quarter. That’s impressive!

Not quite. Net debt was A$ 5.5 billion, down from A$ 6.1 billion a year ago, but up from A$ 5.3 two years ago (this is what they pointed out in the presentation). I suspect that much of the net debt decline was due to the disposal of the Mascot properties. The big chunk generated A$ 802 million in cash flow which Qantas indicated at the time was to be used to pay down debt, some of which may have even been encumbered against the property. Given that the decline in net debt is smaller than the proceeds, it may indicate that net debt net of the transaction may have even increased, albeit, we don't know what proportion of the A$ 802 million was applied to debt or possibly used for capital investment elsewhere. Also, gross debt only decreased about A$200 million, less than the decline in net debt.

Apologies I've now seen the trading statement which indicates net debt at A$ 4.5 billion at the end of April. That is a substantial decline. We don't have financial statements for this so we don't know the details, particularly gross versus net debt and how they did this, but it's a very positive development with a cycle of rising interest rates ahead of us.

Is that from selling the 787's and leasing them back ?

Been keeping tabs on the QF11 A380 service lately and noticed it seems to depart over an hour late everyday. Any particular reason for this?

LTEN11 wrote:

evanb wrote:

evanb wrote:

Not quite. Net debt was A$ 5.5 billion, down from A$ 6.1 billion a year ago, but up from A$ 5.3 two years ago (this is what they pointed out in the presentation). I suspect that much of the net debt decline was due to the disposal of the Mascot properties. The big chunk generated A$ 802 million in cash flow which Qantas indicated at the time was to be used to pay down debt, some of which may have even been encumbered against the property. Given that the decline in net debt is smaller than the proceeds, it may indicate that net debt net of the transaction may have even increased, albeit, we don't know what proportion of the A$ 802 million was applied to debt or possibly used for capital investment elsewhere. Also, gross debt only decreased about A$200 million, less than the decline in net debt.

Apologies I've now seen the trading statement which indicates net debt at A$ 4.5 billion at the end of April. That is a substantial decline. We don't have financial statements for this so we don't know the details, particularly gross versus net debt and how they did this, but it's a very positive development with a cycle of rising interest rates ahead of us.

Is that from selling the 787's and leasing them back ?

QF encumbered/mortgaged the 787s to financial institutions, not a "sale and lease back" arrangement.

QF's mortgage payments for the 11x 787-9 fleet (assuming the deferred 3 were not encumbered/mortgaged) would be ongoing.

LTEN11 wrote:

Is that from selling the 787's and leasing them back ?

As above they didn't do this.
And in any event under new accounting standards, switching a mortgage to lease no longer changes thing dramatically.

mrkerr7474 wrote:

Been keeping tabs on the QF11 A380 service lately and noticed it seems to depart over an hour late everyday. Any particular reason for this?

I’d say one reason would be holding for domestic connections. I have no idea why QF is still selling 60 minute connections via SYD. It just doesn’t happen.

If forecast winds are better than expected they will also hold planes so they meet their slots at the arrival airport, rather than likely being directed into a holding pattern.

moa999 wrote:

And in any event under new accounting standards, switching a mortgage to lease no longer changes thing dramatically.

Yes and no. Leases now appear on the balance sheet as a liability, but they don't count towards gross or net debt which are interest bearing liabilities. Net debt would include mortgages, but not lease liabilities.

moa999 wrote:

If forecast winds are better than expected they will also hold planes so they meet their slots at the arrival airport, rather than likely being directed into a holding pattern.

This occurs at slot or curfew controlled airports like LHR where you can't arrive before 5am at this time of year and if you arrive too early or too late for your slot window too often you can get fined or even lose your slot. However, LAX (where QF 11 flies to) is neither. There would be no real constraints. Some of the arrivals into LAX recently by QF 11 have been quite late and I suspect a lot of missed connections at LAX. I suspect this is more a function of the broader operational challenges at Sydney in the last few weeks. Almost everything is delayed from Sydney these days and it escalates as the day gets on.

evanb wrote:

moa999 wrote:

If forecast winds are better than expected they will also hold planes so they meet their slots at the arrival airport, rather than likely being directed into a holding pattern.

This occurs at slot or curfew controlled airports like LHR where you can't arrive before 5am at this time of year and if you arrive too early or too late for your slot window too often you can get fined or even lose your slot. However, LAX (where QF 11 flies to) is neither. There would be no real constraints. Some of the arrivals into LAX recently by QF 11 have been quite late and I suspect a lot of missed connections at LAX. I suspect this is more a function of the broader operational challenges at Sydney in the last few weeks. Almost everything is delayed from Sydney these days and it escalates as the day gets on.

There are two QF 380's today to LAX, QF 11 departed 90 mins late and QF 17 which departed 4 hours late, both are making up about 60 mins for their expected arrival into LAX. Randomly looking at international departures from SYD today, most flights got away within 30 mins of scheduled departure time, though there indeed was maybe 35% of flights delayed for up to an hour. Certainly couldn't blame SYD weather today, it was a glorious day. What the cause was for the other flights I don't know, but domestic flights didn't seem to be disrupted much today.

I will say though that the airport stopped all ops for about 5 minutes to allow the A350 that arrived this morning for the QF order announcement, so the aircraft could fly up and down the harbour for publicity, this at around 08:30, peak time. Ridiculous to allow it at that time of day. There are plenty of times during the day outside of peaks when this could've occurred and be less disruptive to operations. Can't understand why QF is allowed to get away with this time and time again. The publicity shots over the harbour will look just as good at 13:00 as they do at 08:00.

LTEN11 wrote:

There are two QF 380's today to LAX, QF 11 departed 90 mins late and QF 17 which departed 4 hours late, both are making up about 60 mins for their expected arrival into LAX. Randomly looking at international departures from SYD today, most flights got away within 30 mins of scheduled departure time, though there indeed was maybe 35% of flights delayed for up to an hour. Certainly couldn't blame SYD weather today, it was a glorious day. What the cause was for the other flights I don't know, but domestic flights didn't seem to be disrupted much today.

I will say though that the airport stopped all ops for about 5 minutes to allow the A350 that arrived this morning for the QF order announcement, so the aircraft could fly up and down the harbour for publicity, this at around 08:30, peak time. Ridiculous to allow it at that time of day. There are plenty of times during the day outside of peaks when this could've occurred and be less disruptive to operations. Can't understand why QF is allowed to get away with this time and time again. The publicity shots over the harbour will look just as good at 13:00 as they do at 08:00.

Airside and ground handling delays get magnified on bigger aircraft, so not surprising that the A380 got the worst of it. I'm not sure what data you were looking at, but QF operations yesterday were near meltdown:

On international side, 12 departures with every one being delayed. Average delay was 74 minutes with 7 (58%) delayed more than an hour.

Domestic was also horrific. I count 138 departures, of which only 14 (10%) met BITRE's 15 minute OTP measure - this was over 75% for the month of March. 51% were 30 minutes or mate late in departing, 20% were 45 minutes or more late and 6% an hour or more late. It was somewhat cascading during the day showing how earlier delays were leading to knock-on delays as the day wore on.

evanb wrote:

LTEN11 wrote:

There are two QF 380's today to LAX, QF 11 departed 90 mins late and QF 17 which departed 4 hours late, both are making up about 60 mins for their expected arrival into LAX. Randomly looking at international departures from SYD today, most flights got away within 30 mins of scheduled departure time, though there indeed was maybe 35% of flights delayed for up to an hour. Certainly couldn't blame SYD weather today, it was a glorious day. What the cause was for the other flights I don't know, but domestic flights didn't seem to be disrupted much today.

I will say though that the airport stopped all ops for about 5 minutes to allow the A350 that arrived this morning for the QF order announcement, so the aircraft could fly up and down the harbour for publicity, this at around 08:30, peak time. Ridiculous to allow it at that time of day. There are plenty of times during the day outside of peaks when this could've occurred and be less disruptive to operations. Can't understand why QF is allowed to get away with this time and time again. The publicity shots over the harbour will look just as good at 13:00 as they do at 08:00.

Airside and ground handling delays get magnified on bigger aircraft, so not surprising that the A380 got the worst of it. I'm not sure what data you were looking at, but QF operations yesterday were near meltdown:

On international side, 12 departures with every one being delayed. Average delay was 74 minutes with 7 (58%) delayed more than an hour.

Domestic was also horrific. I count 138 departures, of which only 14 (10%) met BITRE's 15 minute OTP measure - this was over 75% for the month of March. 51% were 30 minutes or mate late in departing, 20% were 45 minutes or more late and 6% an hour or more late. It was somewhat cascading during the day showing how earlier delays were leading to knock-on delays as the day wore on.

In addition, QF MEL domestic had another luggage meltdown yesterday with screens blanked, no one around to answer questions and people waiting over 2 hours for baggage.

It's about time someone in Qantas pushed the red button on this whole service crisis.

evanb wrote:

moa999 wrote:

If forecast winds are better than expected they will also hold planes so they meet their slots at the arrival airport, rather than likely being directed into a holding pattern.

This occurs at slot or curfew controlled airports like LHR where you can't arrive before 5am at this time of year and if you arrive too early or too late for your slot window too often you can get fined or even lose your slot. However, LAX (where QF 11 flies to) is neither. There would be no real constraints. Some of the arrivals into LAX recently by QF 11 have been quite late and I suspect a lot of missed connections at LAX. I suspect this is more a function of the broader operational challenges at Sydney in the last few weeks. Almost everything is delayed from Sydney these days and it escalates as the day gets on.

Not necessarily current example - I do recall when I worked for VA gate holds ex-MEL were common - LAX customs (CBT I think it’s called) isn’t 24/7. It’s not a slot issue, but if you arrive too early you have to sit on the ground and wait for customs to open, not sure you can open the doors. I believe there are fines allocated for arriving prior to this. LAX I believe also has a red card system of OTP - early arrival can be just as bad as late. More than +/- 15 mins is considered off schedule so may not have any GHA staff at the arrival port to marshal the aircraft on to the bay, then you have an aircraft blocking a taxi way… not to mention the impact to other stakeholders/suppliers when they have an unexpected influx of pax. It’s amazing how many cogs actually need to line up for a smooth operation!

Qantas Sydney domestic was indeed a mess yesterday. Flights were landing without an assigned bay, and were directed onto taxiway alpha on the international apron to hold at the 16R threshold (landings and departures were on the 34s) until an aircraft pushed back. One out, one in, with any semblance of organisation and planning flying out the window. Once an aircraft had pushed the bay was assigned to the next aircraft in line on the international side.

As an aside, they parked an A330 on bay 4, while 3 and 5 were still used by narrow body aircraft. I thought that bays 1-9 couldn’t take an A330 without blocking the next gate, but clearly not.

smi0006 wrote:

evanb wrote:

moa999 wrote:

If forecast winds are better than expected they will also hold planes so they meet their slots at the arrival airport, rather than likely being directed into a holding pattern.

This occurs at slot or curfew controlled airports like LHR where you can't arrive before 5am at this time of year and if you arrive too early or too late for your slot window too often you can get fined or even lose your slot. However, LAX (where QF 11 flies to) is neither. There would be no real constraints. Some of the arrivals into LAX recently by QF 11 have been quite late and I suspect a lot of missed connections at LAX. I suspect this is more a function of the broader operational challenges at Sydney in the last few weeks. Almost everything is delayed from Sydney these days and it escalates as the day gets on.

Not necessarily current example - I do recall when I worked for VA gate holds ex-MEL were common - LAX customs (CBT I think it’s called) isn’t 24/7. It’s not a slot issue, but if you arrive too early you have to sit on the ground and wait for customs to open, not sure you can open the doors. I believe there are fines allocated for arriving prior to this. LAX I believe also has a red card system of OTP - early arrival can be just as bad as late. More than +/- 15 mins is considered off schedule so may not have any GHA staff at the arrival port to marshal the aircraft on to the bay, then you have an aircraft blocking a taxi way… not to mention the impact to other stakeholders/suppliers when they have an unexpected influx of pax. It’s amazing how many cogs actually need to line up for a smooth operation!

What timeframe are you referring to? When it relaunched (following a hiatus) VA ex-MEL was an 09:00 arrival in LAX so USCBP* wouldn’t have been an issue. I can’t remember the pre-hiatus schedule though.

*The fact you heard “CBT” shows the value of phonetic letters! T and P sound alike, indeed C and B do as well. The acronym is Customs and Border Protection.

evanb wrote:

LTEN11 wrote:

There are two QF 380's today to LAX, QF 11 departed 90 mins late and QF 17 which departed 4 hours late, both are making up about 60 mins for their expected arrival into LAX. Randomly looking at international departures from SYD today, most flights got away within 30 mins of scheduled departure time, though there indeed was maybe 35% of flights delayed for up to an hour. Certainly couldn't blame SYD weather today, it was a glorious day. What the cause was for the other flights I don't know, but domestic flights didn't seem to be disrupted much today.

I will say though that the airport stopped all ops for about 5 minutes to allow the A350 that arrived this morning for the QF order announcement, so the aircraft could fly up and down the harbour for publicity, this at around 08:30, peak time. Ridiculous to allow it at that time of day. There are plenty of times during the day outside of peaks when this could've occurred and be less disruptive to operations. Can't understand why QF is allowed to get away with this time and time again. The publicity shots over the harbour will look just as good at 13:00 as they do at 08:00.

Airside and ground handling delays get magnified on bigger aircraft, so not surprising that the A380 got the worst of it. I'm not sure what data you were looking at, but QF operations yesterday were near meltdown:

On international side, 12 departures with every one being delayed. Average delay was 74 minutes with 7 (58%) delayed more than an hour.

Domestic was also horrific. I count 138 departures, of which only 14 (10%) met BITRE's 15 minute OTP measure - this was over 75% for the month of March. 51% were 30 minutes or mate late in departing, 20% were 45 minutes or more late and 6% an hour or more late. It was somewhat cascading during the day showing how earlier delays were leading to knock-on delays as the day wore on.

There is more than one airline operating through SYD. QF management are the root cause of a lot of their problems. Instead of throwing their party yesterday, maybe some of them should’ve been next door throwing some bags around and keeping the present customers happy

LTEN11 wrote:

evanb wrote:

LTEN11 wrote:

There are two QF 380's today to LAX, QF 11 departed 90 mins late and QF 17 which departed 4 hours late, both are making up about 60 mins for their expected arrival into LAX. Randomly looking at international departures from SYD today, most flights got away within 30 mins of scheduled departure time, though there indeed was maybe 35% of flights delayed for up to an hour. Certainly couldn't blame SYD weather today, it was a glorious day. What the cause was for the other flights I don't know, but domestic flights didn't seem to be disrupted much today.

I will say though that the airport stopped all ops for about 5 minutes to allow the A350 that arrived this morning for the QF order announcement, so the aircraft could fly up and down the harbour for publicity, this at around 08:30, peak time. Ridiculous to allow it at that time of day. There are plenty of times during the day outside of peaks when this could've occurred and be less disruptive to operations. Can't understand why QF is allowed to get away with this time and time again. The publicity shots over the harbour will look just as good at 13:00 as they do at 08:00.

Airside and ground handling delays get magnified on bigger aircraft, so not surprising that the A380 got the worst of it. I'm not sure what data you were looking at, but QF operations yesterday were near meltdown:

On international side, 12 departures with every one being delayed. Average delay was 74 minutes with 7 (58%) delayed more than an hour.

Domestic was also horrific. I count 138 departures, of which only 14 (10%) met BITRE's 15 minute OTP measure - this was over 75% for the month of March. 51% were 30 minutes or mate late in departing, 20% were 45 minutes or more late and 6% an hour or more late. It was somewhat cascading during the day showing how earlier delays were leading to knock-on delays as the day wore on.

There is more than one airline operating through SYD. QF management are the root cause of a lot of their problems. Instead of throwing their party yesterday, maybe some of them should’ve been next door throwing some bags around and keeping the present customers happy

Once again Virgin and Jetstar kept things moving much more smoothly than Qantas. Yes, it is hard to source labour in this market, but Qantas keep getting shown up time and time again.

There is more than one airline operating through SYD. QF management are the root cause of a lot of their problems. Instead of throwing their party yesterday, maybe some of them should’ve been next door throwing some bags around and keeping the present customers happy

Yes, it was a weird juxtaposition when you have senior QF management glad-handing themselves and eating pastries in Hangar 96 whilst, not 100 metres away, the domestic terminal is a chaotic mess and no one seems to be doing anything to fix it.

smi0006 wrote:

Not necessarily current example - I do recall when I worked for VA gate holds ex-MEL were common - LAX customs (CBT I think it’s called) isn’t 24/7. It’s not a slot issue, but if you arrive too early you have to sit on the ground and wait for customs to open, not sure you can open the doors. I believe there are fines allocated for arriving prior to this. LAX I believe also has a red card system of OTP - early arrival can be just as bad as late. More than +/- 15 mins is considered off schedule so may not have any GHA staff at the arrival port to marshal the aircraft on to the bay, then you have an aircraft blocking a taxi way… not to mention the impact to other stakeholders/suppliers when they have an unexpected influx of pax. It’s amazing how many cogs actually need to line up for a smooth operation!

LAX CBT times are terminal specific. QF operate to the TBIT where CBP operate from 5am to midnight. QF 11 is scheduled to arrive at 7am, so there is zero chance they are holding it due to immigration.

LAX is not slot controlled. While the FAA consider it a level 2 airport for slots, this doesn't in any way create an explicit slot constraint. The constraint at LAX is terminal space and gates. This is more complicated since terminal are operated independently, mostly by airlines. As an example, United lease an entire terminal and thus control all the gates in that terminal and allocate their own slots. They certainly don't fine themselves. However, QF use the TBIT which is a CUTE ("common use terminal equipment") facility with an independent gate allocation mechanism. There are a set of rules that govern allocation, occupancy times, priority, etc. Generally, if you miss your allocated time (which you can actually change quite easily) you don't lose your slot, but rather your priority, so you may end up at a different gate or maybe a remote stand. A penalty (yes, they do have yellow and red cards) is generally only assessed when you hold the gate too long and delay another aircraft, and even then, the penalty is only applied when this becomes a systematic issue. QF are certainly not holding departures of LAX flights due to this. If anything, you want to get in early. Under the LAX rules you only start losing priority if you're arriving more than 30 minutes ahead of schedule and you won't be penalised in any other way for an early arrival unless prior to 5am.

RyanairGuru wrote:

smi0006 wrote:

evanb wrote:

This occurs at slot or curfew controlled airports like LHR where you can't arrive before 5am at this time of year and if you arrive too early or too late for your slot window too often you can get fined or even lose your slot. However, LAX (where QF 11 flies to) is neither. There would be no real constraints. Some of the arrivals into LAX recently by QF 11 have been quite late and I suspect a lot of missed connections at LAX. I suspect this is more a function of the broader operational challenges at Sydney in the last few weeks. Almost everything is delayed from Sydney these days and it escalates as the day gets on.

Not necessarily current example - I do recall when I worked for VA gate holds ex-MEL were common - LAX customs (CBT I think it’s called) isn’t 24/7. It’s not a slot issue, but if you arrive too early you have to sit on the ground and wait for customs to open, not sure you can open the doors. I believe there are fines allocated for arriving prior to this. LAX I believe also has a red card system of OTP - early arrival can be just as bad as late. More than +/- 15 mins is considered off schedule so may not have any GHA staff at the arrival port to marshal the aircraft on to the bay, then you have an aircraft blocking a taxi way… not to mention the impact to other stakeholders/suppliers when they have an unexpected influx of pax. It’s amazing how many cogs actually need to line up for a smooth operation!

What timeframe are you referring to? When it relaunched (following a hiatus) VA ex-MEL was an 09:00 arrival in LAX so USCBP* wouldn’t have been an issue. I can’t remember the pre-hiatus schedule though.

*The fact you heard “CBT” shows the value of phonetic letters! T and P sound alike, indeed C and B do as well. The acronym is Customs and Border Protection.

Haha no that’s my foggy memory, not my hearing!

Would have been 2013-2014 era!

ben175 wrote:

mrkerr7474 wrote:

Been keeping tabs on the QF11 A380 service lately and noticed it seems to depart over an hour late everyday. Any particular reason for this?

I’d say one reason would be holding for domestic connections. I have no idea why QF is still selling 60 minute connections via SYD. It just doesn’t happen.

That is a bit interesting they are doing that still knowing probably full well it's not possible. I did wonder if it had anything to do with outsourcing to their party contractor maybe not being as used to loading an A380 etc but that of course is a wild guess! Bit of a shame their OTP is taking a hit constantly just now it seems

tullamarine wrote:

There is more than one airline operating through SYD. QF management are the root cause of a lot of their problems. Instead of throwing their party yesterday, maybe some of them should’ve been next door throwing some bags around and keeping the present customers happy

Yes, it was a weird juxtaposition when you have senior QF management glad-handing themselves and eating pastries in Hangar 96 whilst, not 100 metres away, the domestic terminal is a chaotic mess and no one seems to be doing anything to fix it.

It's a pity QF didn't keep their ground handling in house at the main ports of SYD, MEL and BNE while outsourcing everywhere else. Perhaps following Virgins lead they would have a better handle of things and potentially this consistent mess wouldn't be happening. Of course this a wild guess but it's unfortunate to see and more unfortunate that management aren't taking responsibility

smi0006 wrote:

Haha no that’s my foggy memory, not my hearing!

Would have been 2013-2014 era!

lol ... my hearing is the one that seems more troublesome nowadays

mrkerr7474 wrote:

It's a pity QF didn't keep their ground handling in house at the main ports of SYD, MEL and BNE while outsourcing everywhere else. Perhaps following Virgins lead they would have a better handle of things and potentially this consistent mess wouldn't be happening. Of course this a wild guess but it's unfortunate to see and more unfortunate that management aren't taking responsibility

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest it wouldn't have made a difference. Even had they not outsourced they'd have cut ground handling costs internally over the last two years through other means including laying off people, offering redundancy and early retirement and reducing numbers through attrition. The replacements would have come in with the same problems and challenges. One might even argue that the internal cost cutting may have even been more aggressive than outsourcing resulting in even lower service standards. When the business decides that a specific cost centre is too costly they will reduce costs one way or another. It was never a binary decision between outsource or do nothing.

Regarding the A321XLR and A220-300 orders, Qantas has also put out a couple infographics on range of each from the 4 main gateways, any suggestions of potential routes?

A220-300



A321XLR



https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... ts-future/

Effective 1st of June Cebu Pacific will upgrade it 3 weekly MNL-SYD to A330-900neo

https://aeroroutes.com/eng/220501-5jjun22au

A couple of BNE changes

Batik Air to operate 3 weekly 737MAX8 KUL-DPS-BNE from 18 June, increasing to 4 weekly from 26 June

https://aeroroutes.com/eng/220501-od7m8bne

Eva Air TPE-BNE will operate 2 weekly, 787-9 from 1 July through to 30 Sep 22

https://aeroroutes.com/eng/220502-br3q22naau

qf789 wrote:

Regarding the A321XLR and A220-300 orders, Qantas has also put out a couple infographics on range of each from the 4 main gateways, any suggestions of potential routes?

A220-300



A321XLR



https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... ts-future/

Given the initial A321s are being configured with 200 seats including 20 recliner J seats, it seems they will only be operating on domestic and Tasman services currently operated by A332s or 738s so could have been done with a standard A321NEO.

The A321XLRs definitely have the range to open up new routes but it would seem unlikely until they have a subfleet fitted with something approaching an international standard J seat offering with total seating of between 120 and 160 if AA and JetBlue's A321s are a guide.

Bonza has hired former VA head of ops Michael Young to lead negotiations with CASA and will also be in charge of OTP, ground services, engineering, flight and cabin crew

https://australianaviation.com.au/2022/ ... otiations/

Effective 18 May Thai Airways will increase BKK-MEL to daily A359

https://aeroroutes.com/eng/220502-tgmay22mel

Yesterday's QF64 JNB-SYD diverted to DUR, looks like it was planned, wondering if JNB is still having fuel issues as UA had cancelled one of their flights last week as a result of it

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airc ... e#2bb3e5bc

Just a thought, but both UA and DL use domestic configured 757s (DL) and 737MAXes (UA) on more leisure oriented Trans-Atlantic routes such as KEF (DL) and PGD (UA), with the domestic ‘first class’ cabin sold as Premium Economy rather than Business so that the product matches customer expectations. I wonder if Qantas would consider something similar on routes such as NAN and DPS? Their domestic business class soft product is basically identical to international premium economy as it is.

RyanairGuru wrote:

Just a thought, but both UA and DL use domestic configured 757s (DL) and 737MAXes (UA) on more leisure oriented Trans-Atlantic routes such as KEF (DL) and PGD (UA), with the domestic ‘first class’ cabin sold as Premium Economy rather than Business so that the product matches customer expectations. I wonder if Qantas would consider something similar on routes such as NAN and DPS? Their domestic business class soft product is basically identical to international premium economy as it is.

I'm not sure it is a problem on routes such as DPS and NAN where the 738 already operates and the route is really all about "back of the bus" anyway with J class often sold as reward seats. Where an ordinary J product will hurt is where it is cross-sold against other fleet members (for example you couldn't have some SYD-SIN on an A333 and others on a domestic configuration A321XLR) or where you are wingtip flying against a much better equipped competitor (such as SIN-ADL with SQ operating an A359).

qf789 wrote:

Regarding the A321XLR and A220-300 orders, Qantas has also put out a couple infographics on range of each from the 4 main gateways, any suggestions of potential routes?

A220-300



A321XLR



https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... ts-future/

The options out of PER are plentiful on an A220.
I'm wondering how much of a look in CGK might get on an A220.
The other option I could think of is KUL, QF virtually ignoring the VFR market and just focussing on business traffic.

PER-SIN could even run as a 737 / A220 combo.

PER-SIN could even run as a 737 / A220 combo.

It could, but not with a domestic J class given SQ serves PER up to 3 or 4 times a day with a A359 or 78J.

qf789 wrote:

Regarding the A321XLR and A220-300 orders, Qantas has also put out a couple infographics on range of each from the 4 main gateways, any suggestions of potential routes?

A220-300



A321XLR



https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... ts-future/

I dont think QF should count on a strategy to relocate Melbourne to develop new A321 routings....

qf2220 wrote:

qf789 wrote:

Regarding the A321XLR and A220-300 orders, Qantas has also put out a couple infographics on range of each from the 4 main gateways, any suggestions of potential routes?

A220-300



A321XLR



https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... ts-future/

I dont think QF should count on a strategy to relocate Melbourne to develop new A321 routings....

LOL Obviously created by some Sydney based marketing type who prescribes to Paul Keating's thoughts that if you aren't in Sydney, you're camping out.

On the QF Bendigo-Sydney flights - any news of how theyre going?

Could this be another candidate for a direct BNE connection with Qantaslink (like Albury has)?

Does anyone think when the new narrow body aircraft come onboard, QF will offer a more private business experience? I've often thought comparing to other airlines internationally that have narrowbody J class, those airlines seem to offer a much more private experience (some form of block out between J and Y) compared to QF. Personally thought with the fares they charge, QF should at least give increased value for money in this aspect.

Thoughts on this?

qf789 wrote:

Effective 18 May Thai Airways will increase BKK-MEL to daily A359

https://aeroroutes.com/eng/220502-tgmay22mel

Great to see TG increase MEL to daily so quickly! Still a way to go before it gets back to double daily pre-COVID.

Does anyone know if TG plans to keep HKT-SYD indefinitely? Also any news on PER being added back? Have heard that BNE has been axed and won’t be back.

mrkerr7474 wrote:

Does anyone think when the new narrow body aircraft come onboard, QF will offer a more private business experience? I've often thought comparing to other airlines internationally that have narrowbody J class, those airlines seem to offer a much more private experience (some form of block out between J and Y) compared to QF. Personally thought with the fares they charge, QF should at least give increased value for money in this aspect.

Thoughts on this?

The A220s arrive from the end of 2023 and the A321XLRs from late 2024. It is hard to say if there will be a solid divider between J and Y at this stage; what is known is that initial deliveries will be fitted with a domestic recliner style J class seat.