QF to return to SFO?

[smit0847]

How many 747s do QF have in storage and how old are they? I assume they're all non refurbed?

 

[Platinum A332]

Maybe QF will instead of reducing the fleet to 9 refurnished aircraft, will keep the current fleet of 13 aircraft and refurbish the remaining 3 instead (assuming VH-OJA never flies again….it has done a few flights since its 'retirement')?

This would allow QF to launch SFO and keep YVR year round - and refurbishing 3 aircraft will probably be cheaper than adding 3 aircraft to the fleet particularly with oil predicted to remain <US$70/barrel for the next three years.

3x Sydney-Johannesburg/Tokyo
2x Brisbane-Los Angeles-New York
2x Sydney-Los Angeles
1x Melbourne-Los Angeles
1x Sydney-Santiago
1x Sydney-Hong Kong
2x Sydney-Vancouver/San Francisco (3xwk each)

However this doesn't leave any aircraft spare. Thoughts?

 

[Himeno]

How would 1 aircraft cover both SFO and YVR year round? They wouldn't be able to do both as non stop with only 1 aircraft with minimum 30 hour return trips. They could only do a 3 weekly SYD-SFO-YVR.

 

[juddles]

I think ¨bums in seats¨ is the critical factor for any route. Here people are speculating on the revival of this route, but IMHO if it were true, Qantas would be going for broke promoting this, to try to sell seats. Are they?

 

[Himeno]

How many 747s do QF have in storage and how old are they? I assume they're all non refurbed?

airfleets.net lists OJB, OJC, OJD, OJE, OJF, OJG, OJH, OJJ, OJL, OJN, OJO, OJP and OJQ as stored. Not sure about the status of them. (the site lists other aircraft such as OJR and OED as scrapped)

 

[Platinum A332]

How would 1 aircraft cover both SFO and YVR year round? They wouldn't be able to do both as non stop with only 1 aircraft with minimum 30 hour return trips. They could only do a 3 weekly SYD-SFO-YVR.

Thanks for picking me up on this. Had a calculation error in my original post, failing to count for YVR and SFO individually. This has been amended now

 

[Isochronous]

Didn't someone make the point that oddly they sent a refurbed 744 to the graveyard even though some 4-class birds are still flying actively? In that case we have an obvious candidate to return to the skies.

 

[madrooster]

Didn't someone make the point that oddly they sent a refurbed 744 to the graveyard even though some 4-class birds are still flying actively? In that case we have an obvious candidate to return to the skies.

Every 744 that has been stored is in a non-refurbed state.

 

[Himeno]

Didn't someone make the point that oddly they sent a refurbed 744 to the graveyard even though some 4-class birds are still flying actively? In that case we have an obvious candidate to return to the skies.

Which one?
They refurbished VH-OJS, VH-OJT, VH-OJU, VH-OEE, VH-OEF, VH-OEG, VH-OEH, VH-OEI and VH-OEJ. All of which have had flights in the last 48 hours.

 

[markis10]

Didn't someone make the point that oddly they sent a refurbed 744 to the graveyard even though some 4-class birds are still flying actively? In that case we have an obvious candidate to return to the skies.

That was a 767 I believe

 

[ADLhighflyer]

Rather than accepting used 747's back into the fleet, could it be possible that the four Jetstar 787's scheduled for delivery this year be meant for QF, while the A330's stay put for now?

 

[QF029]

It would be consistent with the apparent refocus on Pacific routes because they are seemingly more profitable.

 

[moa999]

Rather than accepting used 747's back into the fleet, could it be possible that the four Jetstar 787's scheduled for delivery this year be meant for QF, while the A330's stay put for now?

Why would you go through the effort of new pilot contracts and adding a fleet type and all the associated effort when you can just get A330s back

 

[JessicaTam]

SFO was whispered about some months ago, but with the addition of the seasonal YVR route thought it had died a natural death.

It will be good to see if SYD-SFO happens.

 

[Himeno]

SFO was whispered about some months ago, but with the addition of the seasonal YVR route thought it had died a natural death.

It will be good to see if SYD-SFO happens.

QF73/74 used to have a seasonal tag to YVR and SFO is one of 4 ports where 5th freedom to Canada is allowed for Australian carriers.
If true, this could be a 3 weekly SYD-SFO-YVR. QF has a codeshare deal with WS, that would cover feed in YVR, but not so much in SFO. They could get feed from AA/US, but AAG only flies to their 8 hubs from SFO.

 

[phill84]

Don't both 787s & even 777s have insufficient range for Aust. to U.S. non-stop?

 

[markis10]

Don't both 787s & even 777s have insufficient range for Aust. to U.S. non-stop?

Don't tell United, Delta and VA !

 

[Isochronous]

Rather than accepting used 747's back into the fleet, could it be possible that the four Jetstar 787's scheduled for delivery this year be meant for QF, while the A330's stay put for now?

And reduce JQ operations. Hear hear!

 

[docjames]

/thinking laterally/

What about a 332 with refuel only stop in HNL?

Great Circle Mapper

 

[ADLhighflyer]

Why would you go through the effort of new pilot contracts and adding a fleet type and all the associated effort when you can just get A330s back

My guess would be the 330's range is insufficient East Coast Oz - USA. The 787 pilot contracts etc would 'most likely' be used anyway down the track so its only bringing forward what would happen later.