Yet another aviation thread.

Quote: Aussie

The terms of the partnership agreement with Emirates won't allow them to stop anywhere but DXB on the way to Europe.

I knew they were using Dubai for the A380s, but didn't realize that applied to all airframes. Of course, they list only 5 destinations in Europe, so it is possible they are all served by the A380.

London
Paris
Rome
Frankfurt
Barcelona

Quote: Pacomartin

Qantas's Holy Grail is to be able to fly in both directions to London and NYC with 300 seats in five years. All of the B747s in Qantas's fleet will be retired by then.

Qantas operates out of a BIG country with a relatively small population, that is separated from most of the world by large oceans. Short of reducing the size of the Pacific, or moving the whole continent north or west, they'll just have to make do with the technology as it exists.

Or they could massively increase their population.

Or set up their own aircraft manufacturing business and make the planes they need. See if they want to risk developing an ultra-long-range plane with their own money.

Quote: Pacomartin

I knew they were using Dubai for the A380s, but didn't realize that applied to all airframes. Of course, they list only 5 destinations in Europe, so it is possible they are all served by the A380.

London
Paris
Rome
Frankfurt
Barcelona

Yep it is for all 1-stop flights to Europe, it just so happens that they only currently fly the A380 there. So they can get away with the PER-LHR flight but could not schedule for example SYD-SIN-LHR (like they used to fly) because it would be against the agreement. Currently they only serve LHR on their own metal however they codeshare with EK on all their EU destinations.

Quote: Aussie

So they can get away with the PER-LHR flight.

I heard that in Qantas darkest moments a few years ago they were hoping that Emirates would buy a majority share,

The Perth flight is configured with 238 seats
Boeing 787-9 (789) Seats:42 Business 166 Economy 28 Premium Economy

I wonder if configuring a 787-9 with only 100 Business class seats would allow the increased range to London? Qantas is planning to purchase 8 of these planes, and they can't all be for the Perth-London route.

I guess part of the problem is that Brisbane and Melbourne are only a tiny bit closer to London than Sydney.
LHR PER 9,010 mi
LHR BNE 10,277 mi
LHR MEL 10,504 mi
LHR SYD 10,574 mi



My guess is that Qantas is hoping that most of the people from Western and South Australia travelling to London will opt to fly through Perth. Maybe they will put a convenient feeder from Adelaide.
1,706,500 South Australia ( 1,324,279 in Adelaide)
2,613,700 Western Australia (2,022,044 in Perth)

They will try to feed people through Perth for sure. How successful that will be who knows but no doubt they will have some research to suggest it will work. Personally coming from the east coast I would have no interest. The idea of a close to 20hr flight does not appeal and there are already plenty of other options anyway. If I was from Perth then there would be more appeal and Adelaide would be a maybe.


Regarding ownership I'm sure they would have loved to have Emirates jump on board (pardon the pun). However, when the Commonwealth government sold Qantas the act of parliament specified that total foreign ownership could not be more than 49%. When they recorded the massive loss a few years ago the CEO was lobbying either for financial assistance or for this restriction to be removed.

Quote: Aussie

Yep it is for all 1-stop flights to Europe, it just so happens that they only currently fly the A380 there. So they can get away with the PER-LHR flight but could not schedule for example SYD-SIN-LHR (like they used to fly) because it would be against the agreement. Currently they only serve LHR on their own metal however they codeshare with EK on all their EU destinations.

And just as I say that they announce an apparent change to the agreement for the 2nd 5 years and QF1/2 are returning to the SIN stopover!

I understand that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission put a 5 year limit on the Qantas Emirate alliance (through 2018). Did they get it extended?


12 Airbus A380 8.1 Years average
10 Boeing 747 16.6 Years average


Qantas A380 destinations
From & To Sydney
Dubai
London
Los Angeles
Dallas

From & To Melbourne
Dubai
Los Angeles

Caption: A couple of the soon-to-be-extinct Mammoth European Eagles during a failed attempt at mating well outside their natural habitat.

Would their mating result in an anti-Israeli kangaroo?

Quote: DRich

Would their mating result in an anti-Israeli kangaroo?

I think they beget the Mammoth European Falcon (aka Aerobusis athreefortis)