743 Mel-per

As maninblack says, there are a variety of reasons for the 743 operating that route. One of the major reasons is that the A330-200s are moving to Jetstar International and QF is short of widebody aircraft for the east/west coast services. The 743 is available for the route and loads are good enough to warrant using it while keeping other aircraft to operate the east coast, trans-Tasman and other international routes.

 

Load MEL-PER on a 743 today are showing as:

Code:

QF481: J5  D5  I0  U0  Y9  B9  H9  W9  K9  M9  R9  L9  V9  S9  N0  Q0  O0  G0  T0  X0  E0

So I would say quite a few seats are left. This is indicated by availability down to S9.

On Friday it's showing as:

Code:

QF481: J0  D0  I0  U0  Y9  B9  H9  W9  K9  M9  R9  L9  V9  S2  N0  Q0  O0  G0  T0  X0  E0

So quite a bit more utilisation there.

 

And to keep it in context, the QF 747-300 config is 50J 398Y making a total of 450 seats. That is 90% of the capacity of QF's A380s when they are delivered. Its by far the largest capacity aircraft operating in Australia. So to fill the 743 is quite a task. I would suggest that seeing S9 on EF availability listings may still mean there are over 400 people being carried! And that would just about fill a QF 2-class 744 aircraft.

The 743 can carry about 200 more passengers than a QF domestic config 767-300 and about 150 more than a QF A330-200. But of course it costs a lot more to get the big bird across the country.

And of course the 743 has a big belly and a huge appetite for carrying freight if available.