Qantas and the future

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is still confident in the Airbus A380’s future and expects the carrier’s ‘Project Sunrise’ ultra-long-haul flights to kick off in three years’ time Flight Global reports.  The fact that Australia is literally ‘cut off’ from the rest of the world does not seem to worry him for the future.

The Australian airline’s entire A380 fleet remains parked in California’s Mojave Desert, but Joyce told a Eurocontrol Zoom audience that “there are going to be opportunities to deploy those aircraft.”

With Air France dropping its superjumbos, and BA and Lufthansa pondering, Joyce said that deploying A380s on certain high traffic long-haul routes is more practical than using other aircraft in the Qantas fleet.  Hubs such as Heathrow, for instance, have a limited number of departure and arrival slots, while Los Angeles, another popular Qantas destination, is subject to strict night curfews.

“If you’ve ever been in LA between 10pm and midnight, you see six or seven Qantas aircraft departing for Australia, because it’s the only time that works with curfews,” said Joyce.  “So, instead of flying multiple frequencies right on top of each other, an A380 that’s fully or nearly fully written down, if it generates cash, will absolutely work.”

Qantas said it will make a decision later this year on the number of A350-1000s it will order as part of Project Sunrise ultra-long-haul flights to New York and London with 2024 in mind.

www.qantas.com

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