Interesting - ALL 30 330's will get this - both those generally used for Domestic and those for international.
Obviously the Coast-to-Coast competition is hot!
That, and also I'd reckon Qantas want a lot more clarity in the fleet (i.e. all with the same product) and confidence that they can replace any route they like with an A330 (i.e. it's versatile, both long and short haul flying).
I note in the press release that the new A330 business class seats "can be left in a recline position for take-off and landing... a key point of difference between Qantas and other carriers flying to Asia."
Don't the Upper Class seats that VS use on flights to Asia have the ability to be reclined during takeoff and landing?
True, but VS only serves HKG anyway (and NZ, if you can count them as serving the Australia/Asia market, only serves PVG, KIX, NRT and HKG).
The statement holds some weight in that at minimum Qantas will join the small clique which allows customers to do this (if they will indeed be allowed to do this). But of course this is marketing talk, you know what that's all about...
The B717 refit is just using standard J product. Oh well, still better than converted J, though suffice to say you can't have 30 J seats for all the pollies on there any more.
Anyway... back to the report... seems like a very small profit, although better than a loss, I guess.