Qantas’ Head of Fleet Management David Kelly told delegates at the 12th Annual Asia Pacific Airlines Engineering and Maintenance Conference in Singapore that Qantas is having another look at the Boeing’s Ultra Long Haul 777-200LR to enable the carrier to operate non-stop services from Sydney to London, Sydney to New York and Sydney to Dallas.
He would not reveal though when a decision would be made, but it is understood that performance and weight improvements may have led to the aircraft being able to undertake these ultra distances non-stop saying, “We are still undergoing evaluation and we haven’t made a decision one way or another on that aircraft type.”
He added that to deliver the range “it would require us to significantly change what we would put on the aircraft and our initial view is we would have to try and take anything between seven to nine tonnes off the material weight of the aircraft.”
Mr Kelly said, “Qantas is also talking about lighter materials to assist with reducing the aircraft’s weight,” adding, “it is hard to get the aircraft’s overall weight low enough so it has the desired range and a reasonable seat count.
Aviation pundits at ATE 2006 in Adelaide last week thought it possible that ultimately Qantas would operate the 777-200LR as an all Business Class aircraft to maximise revenue and yield on some of these high income business class routes, particularly Sydney to London, allowing Jetstar International to operate as a large volume, lower price and yield carrier on some of the same routes, with the traditional stopovers.
Report by The Mole
