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

[Quickstatus]

Food is food?

I have never why breakfast has to be different to lunch and dinner. So much simpler if food is time agnostic

 

[TeaKozy]

I have never why breakfast has to be different to lunch and dinner. So much simpler if food is time agnostic

You mean you don’t like having three breakfasts flying MEL-LAX (lounge, plane, lounge)?

 

[Quickstatus]

You mean you don’t like having three breakfasts flying MEL-LAX (lounge, plane, lounge)?

. No I mean why can't I have the dinner menu at breakfast and say the breakfast menu at dinner?

 

[RooFlyer]

And I'll likewise ask you to substantiate that.

No - it was stated as a belief, not a fact (“So I believe so far. …)

The Quest extract you mentioned doesn’t say that the ULR won’t be priced at a premium to standard air frame - they can stick the R&D cost anywhere they choose but then what they price the final product at is different - but if it is price exactly the same as all the other A350–1000s then good on Qantas! But like I say, the usefulness of the ULR generally versus the standard airframe is very limited. Why would you buy a custom-built plane with extended range and lower seat capacity if you don’t need it? Even if you say okay we won’t use the extra fuel tank and will put more seats in – why wouldn’t you buy the standard air frame which has a lot more proven capability and systems the same as all the others?

 

[justinbrett]

No - it was stated as a belief, not a fact (“So I believe so far. …)

The Quest extract you mentioned doesn’t say that the ULR won’t be priced at a premium to standard air frame - they can stick the R&D cost anywhere they choose but then what they price the final product at is different - but if it is price exactly the same as all the other A350–1000s then good on Qantas! But like I say, the usefulness of the ULR generally versus the standard airframe is very limited. Why would you buy a custom-built plane with extended range and lower seat capacity if you don’t need it? Even if you say okay we won’t use the extra fuel tank and will put more seats in – why wouldn’t you buy the standard air frame which has a lot more proven capability?

There's no point debating it because the price is confidential - what we do know is there's not really such thing as a list price (or more accurately its rarely used), so if there's a 10% premium but QF gets a 40% discount for a large order (noting it ordered A32Xs as part of the deal) - is it really a premium? Either way we won't know.

You keep saying "custom built plane". It's an official variant by the manufacturer. They've sold 12 - as a comparison they only sold 8 A330-800s, and that was to multiple customers. They only sold 7 A350-900ULRs to SQ. There's a a dozen or so variants from Airbus & Boeing which haven't sold well at all, so what's the difference? All aircraft are custom built.

Boeing didn't sell 747-400ERs to anybody else however it did re-use a lot of the R&D from that project into later generation 747-400Fs.

As for who would buy it - QF is converting two of it's 787 ULR routes (PER-LHR & AKL-JFK) to the type, so the numbers must look a lot better. That's only two of the 10 top longest routes - not to mention other routes that could be launched. I'd be surprised if SQ don't buy some eventually. I also wouldn't rule out QR (DOH-AKL is longer than PER-LHR), Not saying it will be wildly popular but I've got a feeling QF won't be the only buyer.

 

[Daver6]

. No I mean why can't I have the dinner menu at breakfast and say the breakfast menu at dinner?

You can....just no on QF. They don't believe in dine on demand, despite pretending they do on the printer J menus.

 

[RooFlyer]

You keep saying "custom built plane". It's an official variant by the manufacturer.

Qantas asked for it. Airbus developed it for Qantas; I haven't heard that they were planning to do it otherwise. That's what I mean by 'custom built'; I think most people would understand the meaning.

As for who would buy it - QF is converting two of it's 787 ULR routes (PER-LHR & AKL-JFK) to the type, so the numbers must look a lot better. That's only two of the 10 top longest routes - not to mention other routes that could be launched. I'd be surprised if SQ don't buy some eventually. I also wouldn't rule out QR (DOH-AKL is longer than PER-LHR), Not saying it will be wildly popular but I've got a feeling QF won't be the only buyer.

The A350-1000ULR may be more profitable on those routes than the B787 - but Qantas has also talked about fleet optimisation. Win-win for them.

I agree that there may be other buyers for it - although I reckon very limited. SQ, sure. But if if an airline can get away with an existing type, I still think they would (usual caveats on production time lines etc).

 

[elanshin]

Qantas asked for it. Airbus developed it for Qantas; I haven't heard that they were planning to do it otherwise. That's what I mean by 'custom built'; I think most people would understand the meaning.



The A350-1000ULR may be more profitable on those routes than the B787 - but Qantas has also talked about fleet optimisation. Win-win for them.

I agree that there may be other buyers for it - although I reckon very limited. SQ, sure. But if if an airline can get away with an existing type, I still think they would (usual caveats on production time lines etc).

I wonder if BA would get them out of left field and directly challenge QF. Rumor was that a UK based airlines was running the numbers on PER -LHR and considering direct to PER as well.

ME3 might get a fleet to expand certain regions potentially and who knows what the chinese airlines are up to. I know theres a lot of business between south America and China and it's an absolute slog to go back and forth there.

 

[offshore171]

I wonder if BA would get them out of left field and directly challenge QF. Rumor was that a UK based airlines was running the numbers on PER -LHR and considering direct to PER as well.

Not sure the poms are as resilient as aussies when it comes to ULH flights!

 

[mviy]

I wonder if BA would get them out of left field and directly challenge QF. Rumor was that a UK based airlines was running the numbers on PER -LHR and considering direct to PER as well.

I guess they’ll be interested to see how Sunrise goes for QF and also how BA’s one stop flights to MEL go to see whether it’s worth the risk.

 

[moa999]

If they have multiple daily flights on the Sunrise aircraft going to the same overseas destination they can improve aircraft utilisation. So whilst initially utilisation will not be great, it should improve.

Been no indication of that.

And remember a double daily SYD-LHR would take up five aircraft in the schedule. Qantas only have 12 on order...

Also a thread on Reddit but there have been some subtle design changes to the A359 shown on this page.

https://www.qantas.com/en-au/onboard/fleet/a350

Economy seats are now a deep red cloth with similar red leather headrest (previous renders were a grey with brown headrests similar to the A220).. Suggestions that the grey is showing marks way too easily on the A220.

Also noted that the light in Business has shifted from a circular tube to flat bar design.

 

[dajop]

ME3 might get a fleet to expand certain regions potentially and who knows what the chinese airlines are up to. I know theres a lot of business between south America and China and it's an absolute slog to go back and forth there.

China and South America is difficult, from PVG, apart from perhaps Bogota and Lima, the major centres are quite a bit further than SYD-LHR.

If you use great circle mapper, interesting to put in two circles at any given airport that shows the additional range gained by this aircraft (using SYD-LHR as the realistic range vs other ULR (eg PER-LHR, AKL-DOH)

Great Circle Mapper

Displays a map on which the great circle path for one or more routes is plotted and calculates the distance along each route. Ranges from one or more locations may also be plotted, along with go/no-go areas for ETOPS operations at various rule times.

gc.kls2.com

 

[justinbrett]

Qantas asked for it. Airbus developed it for Qantas; I haven't heard that they were planning to do it otherwise. That's what I mean by 'custom built'; I think most people would understand the meaning.

Developed, not built. That's the issue I have with your use of that statement - the costs of development are one off, the IP is owned by the manufacturer and can be reused (such as the Airbus CEO has said). The costs to then build aircraft of that variant is another matter - and there is nothing in the A350-1000ULR to suggest that the build costs of the aircraft are significantly more than the main variant - the main one being the extra fuel tank.

For an existing A350-1000 operator, it's not a significant step to order a subfleet of ULRs - in fact it's one of biggest selling points, is that it's based on a very popular type.

 

[downtheback]

Evening arrivals could work for Sunrise if there are multiple arrivals for the same city pair or QF actually does MEL flights so domestic connections are less necessary. Though having to take a short domestic flight to connect to a Sunrise flight defeats the purpose of paying a premium for direct non-stop in the first place.

Yes and no.

One of the biggest issues flying east from EU to AU is that the stopover always seems to interrupt the optimal time to be asleep to minimise jetlag. Being on the PS flight to SYD and then transferring to MEL/BNE/ADL whilst being a similar flight time overall would at least solve this problem.

Which brings us back to the situation that PS is ideal for a relatively limited number of people, plus QF diehards. If you want to arrive in London at sparrows (or will fly Qantas no matter what) - great! Anywhere else, stopover in Asia or ME and then fly on direct to your final destination, be it Birmingham or Brussels. You'll could be there quicker than via a PS flight and fly on Euro J to final destination.

But then, I'm def not the target market for PS, doing as I do, going to Europe in a stately fashion - a stop overnight in Asia, then a stop overnight in ME/Istanbul (or maybe several nights with QR's v cheap stopover Doha deal) and then onwards. All part of the holiday and all daytime flights with jetlag mostly solved by the time I reach Europe. Coming back often only one stop, as I care less how I feel on return.

I still think this is where Turkish will be a great option going forward once the non-stop istanbul flights start. Get the long flight both ways to maximise sleep when needed to minimise jetlag, whilst also being able to fly into nearly any city you could think of within Europe.