Qantas Project Sunrise goes ahead, 12 new A350-1000s ordered

[moa999]

Qantas only have A350-1000s on order.
Remember also that the Sunrise aircraft have a very low density configuration to hit the range requirements.

The remaining non-Sunrise aircraft are likely to be more dense
- likely more Y with reduced pitch
- probably no F, or maybe just one of those J+ Configs for the front row.

 

[evanb]

QF already has 787 ops. Also with the aircraft manufacturing crunch right now, getting both aircraft makes more sense and allows for faster delivery.

The 787-10 and a359 roughly both fits similar mission profiles for heavy asia trunk routes.

I tend to agree that the split fleet is as much about redundancy as it is with them having varying operational advantages.

But ultimately, having 26x B787s (plus 11x at JQ) and 24-36x A350s means having large enough fleets of both to maximise operational and technical efficiencies. Not much to be gained from having a single type with that scale on both. The sizes of these fleets are hardly an Ansett!

 

[evanb]

Qantas only have A350-1000s on order.
Remember also that the Sunrise aircraft have a very low density configuration to hit the range requirements.

The remaining non-Sunrise aircraft are likely to be more dense
- likely more Y with reduced pitch
- probably no F, or maybe just one of those J+ Configs for the front row.

From what I understand, the relatively large number of A350 options (not orders) allow specification for any sub-type. Same for additional B787 options.

 

[Berlin]

QF already do have direct services elsewhere. Both Paris and seasonally Rome. You're just living in the wrong city for it to be direct for you

Oh yea, sure, from Perth- my apologies for this East coast centric view!

Going via Perth from here just makes the whole “direct” thing not worthwhile. Then I’ll rather fly on Cathay directly from here for half the price.

 

[dajop]

Both SYD and JFK have curfews. I would think 3 aircraft would be needed for the SYD-JFK route just like SYD-LHR

I’m guessing that JFK scheduling would similar to Qf 3/4 and therefore be relatively straightforward and curfews wouldn’t affect that (even if they existed at JFK in addition to SYD). Early afternoon from SYD, late afternoon arrival into JFK turn around to become an early evening departure and early morning arrival into SYD.

 

[evanb]

I’m guessing that JFK scheduling would similar to Qf 3/4 and therefore be relatively straightforward and curfews wouldn’t affect that (even if they existed at JFK in addition to SYD). Early afternoon from SYD, late afternoon arrival into JFK turn around to become an early evening departure and early morning arrival into SYD.

Pretty much. The challenge is more with synchronising utilisation to/from LHR. The likelihood is that SYD-LHR will depart 7pm to 8pm during NS and 8pm to 10pm in NW, returning at 4pm in NS and 6pm in NW.

Those return times are problematic, being too late since LHR-SYD can't turn as SYD-JFK without overnighting in SYD. Hence my earlier comment regarding redundancy and why 5 frames are needed for daily SYD-LHR and SYD-JFK.

 

[ChrisMars]

Pretty much. The challenge is more with synchronising utilisation to/from LHR. The likelihood is that SYD-LHR will depart 7pm to 8pm during NS and 8pm to 10pm in NW, returning at 4pm in NS and 6pm in NW.

Those return times are problematic, being too late since LHR-SYD can't turn as SYD-JFK without overnighting in SYD. Hence my earlier comment regarding redundancy and why 5 frames are needed for daily SYD-LHR and SYD-JFK.

I have a naive question, but could a fifth freedom flight btween lhr and jfk be of any help in scheduling and frame utiization optimisation?

 

[evanb]

I have a naive question, but could a fifth freedom flight btween lhr and jfk be of any help in scheduling and frame utiization optimisation?

And require more fleet time and valuable LHR slots?

Utilisation optimisation is ultimately solved by getting fleet to decent enough size to generate redundancy through scale. That said, having to overnight at SYD is not a problem considering that the aircraft won't be spending 14 hours sitting around at LHR. No more arriving at 6am and leaving at 8pm, instead arriving at 6am and leaving at noon.

 

[mviy]

Those return times are problematic, being too late since LHR-SYD can't turn as SYD-JFK without overnighting in SYD. Hence my earlier comment regarding redundancy and why 5 frames are needed for daily SYD-LHR and SYD-JFK.

Would need a 6th so that a plane can be under planned scheduled maintenance with perhaps a seasonal route at peak times e.g. flying the second daily SYD-SIN flight in school holidays

 

[evanb]

Would need a 6th so that a plane can be under planned scheduled maintenance with perhaps a seasonal route at peak times e.g. flying the second daily SYD-SIN flight in school holidays

Doubtful. Contemporary aircraft have quite different maintenance planning/scheduling that's much better at allowing many more heavy maintenance tasks to be subsumed into base maintenance (hence why D-checks are every 12 rather than 6 years), but also allowing base maintenance to be more continuous rather than a series of discrete events. So for example, having one aircraft overnight at SYD with a 5-aircraft SYD-LHR-SYD-JFK-SYD-LHR-SYD type of cycling works well for that maintenance.

In terms of heavy maintenance, it's somewhat why airlines like deliveries to be spaced out, so that they don't all come due for heavy maintenance at once. But the time the first aircraft comes due for its heavy check, the fleet should be close to 12 aircraft, allowing the redundancy for those heavy checks.

In terms of seasonality, Qantas manage seasonality across the network, for example, European summer balanced with reductions to Chile, India, Japan and Canada, and vice versa.

 

[Himeno]

I have a naive question, but could a fifth freedom flight btween lhr and jfk be of any help in scheduling and frame utiization optimisation?

There was a time when Qantas did trans atlantic flights. I think they ended when the 707s left the fleet.
They aren't going to enter that market when London - North America has over 15 airlines already.