JQs week of 1sts

Jetstar launched a raft of inaugural flights this week.

On Sunday 29-March-2015 Cairns welcomed Jetstar's newest international route CNS-DPS-CNS with A320 VH-VFQ operating the inaugural JQ90/91 service.

Gold Coast also saw a new service on Sunday 29-March-2015 with JQ982/983 OOL-PER-OOL departing.  The inaugural service was operated by A320 VH-VFD

On Monday 30-March-2015 the new JQ164/165 MEL-WLG-MEL service departed Melbourne at the delightful red-eye hour of 00:45 with A320 VH-VQR the lucky aircraft.

On Tuesday 31-March-2015 the new JQ125/124 OOL-NAN-OOL service departed Gold Coast with A320 VH-VFJ operating the inaugural return service.

Air New Zealand's latest A320 arrives home

The latest A320 for Air New Zealand ZK-OXH arrives into Christchurch tonight Monday 02-March-2015 as NZ6397 from CNS at the end of its ferry flight from Airbus in Toulouse.

As they were built to fly domestic flights only, these Airbus A320 fleet are not equipped with HF radios so like its predecessors ZK-OXH has had to fly the CNS-CHC leg in company with another Air New Zealand flight so it can keep in communication over the Tasman Sea.

As the below Flight Radar 24 screenshot shows ZK-OXH is flying across the Tasman in company with scheduled BNE-CHC flight NZ804 ZK-OJF

FlightRadar24 screen shot of A320 ZK-OXH as NZ6397 in company with NZ804 off the Northern New South Wales Coast

Click HERE for photos of ZK-OXH in Cairns over at fellow blog YBCS Plane Spotting

NZ sign off on new A320neo family

As was widely expected Air New Zealand yesterday signed off on a $1.6b (list price) Airbus order at the IATA AGM in Doha.

The order is for 14 aircraft comprising 1 current gen A320, 10 A320neo and 3 A321neo.

The current generation A320 will be delivered by the end of 2015 and sit along side the current delivery of A320SL which are replacing the Boeing 733 on NZ main trunk domestic services.  There are still 5 of these to be delivered from the original order so that will mean 6 aircraft will be delivered in 2014/2015.

The new A321neo's will begin the delivery of the new aircraft in 2017 with all 13 neo's delivered by 2019.  This coincides with the end of lease of a lot of the original A320 fleet currently used on Trans-Tasman and Pacific Island flights.

Air New Zealand have yet to announce which of the neo (new engine options) they will choose to power the new A320/321s but are expected to reach a decision by december.

Read more from the announcement via Flight Global HERE

QF upgrade QF7/8 and axe BNE

In what can not be described as any unexpected move Qantas today have announced that they are replacing their daily SYD-DFW-BNE-SYD Boeing 747 flight with a 6 weekly SYD-DFW-SYD A380 flight, with no service on Tuesdays.

The new QF7/8 will take flight from Monday 29-September-2014

To facilitate this the mix of A380s and B747s on the SYD-HKG services will change.

Qantas have also retimed their QF9/10 MEL-DXB-LHR-DXB-MEL flights from Sunday 20-July-2014 with QF9 now departing MEL at 2255 and QF10 returning to MEL at 2055+2

Qantas are spruiking the fact the retimed arrival into LHR will now offer passengers onwards connections to 17 european destinations in under 4 hours transit time, compared to the previous 4.

Its another sad day for spotters in Brisbane who from September will be down to the daily B744 flight to Los Angeles as the only scheduled B747 flight into the airport.  With Qantas replacing the B747 on it SIN route with an A333.  However we should still see the odd freight charter, and possibly a last Air New Zealand B744 on a NZ135/136 if they need to up-guage capacity, but this is unlikely with their retirement so close.

Below is a video released by Qantas to promote the new A380 service to Dallas, it is presented by Qantas head of International engineering Alan Milne

You can read the full Qantas media release HERE

Qantas have also released a fact sheet about the QF7/8 changes HERE

QF fleet changes

Qantas have announced some changes in the layouts on their A330 fleet as well as the new B717s.

All 30 of Qantas’ A330s will be upgraded with Business Suites in a 1-2-1 layout with fully flat beds and direct aisle access from every seat. Ten A330-300s for Qantas International will feature new Economy seats and 20 A330-200s for Qantas Domestic will see their Economy seats refurbished.

The 5 "new" Boeing 717s being delivered to Qantas will operate as a dedicated sub-fleet on the Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane-Canberra routes and will feature a business class cabin and iPad entertainment in every seat.

“These dedicated B717 aircraft will offer excellent levels of comfort, entertainment, food and wine, delivering on our commitment to continually improve our service,” said Mr Joyce.
The five new QantasLink B717s, announced in January this year, will be introduced to the domestic fleet during FY14.  Qantas Domestic’s 13 other B717s are also being upgraded with new interiors in an all-economy configuration.

Other fleet announcements include the major announcement that as the Jetstar A330s return to Qantas Domestic coupled with further Boeing 737-800s the entire Qantas Boeing 767 fleet will be retired by mid 2015.

• Bombardier Q400 - 3 more to arrive in 1st half of FY14
• Boeing 717 - sub-fleet to be delivered during FY14 with business class
• Boeing 737-400 - all to be retired in FY14
• Boeing 737-800 - four to be delivered in FY14, 5 to be delivered in FY15
• Boeing 767-300 - all to be retired by mid 2015
• Boeing 787-8 - 1st to be delivered in Sept & in service in Nov, 2 further to be delivered by December
• Boeing 747-400 - 2 to be retired in FY14 as underperforming Frankfurt route is cut
• Airbus A330 - all will be upgraded with new seats, JQ's A330s will transfer to QF domestic as 787-8s arrive

Read more on the fleet changes at the Qantas News Room HERE

- Download the Qantas B717 pdf fact sheet HERE

- Download the Qantas A330 pdf fact sheet HERE

NZ Profit Jumps

Air New Zealand have announced a full year net profit of $182m (NZD) for the year ended June 30 2013.  This represents a jump of 156% on the previous year with a record operating cashflow of $750m (NZD)

The airline is paying a final dividend of 5 cents a share, taking its total dividend for the year to 8 cents a share - a 45 per cent jump from last year's shareholder payout. The profit lift was largely anticipated by analysts.
Chairman John Palmer said this morning's result placed Air New Zealand amongst the best performing airlines globally.
"We are focused on further improving on this result in the 2014 financial year. Based on the airline's forecast of market demand and fuel prices at current levels, early results and forward bookings are encouraging." he said.

The airline has also announced they will spend $1.8b on new aircraft over the next 3 years, made up of 9 additional Airbus A320 aircraft for their Domestic fleet renewal, 2 additional Boeing 777-319ERs and 9 new Boeing 787-9s for their international fleet.

Read more about the Air New Zealand profit from stuff.co.nz HERE or the New Zealand Herald HERE or check out the full Air New Zealand results presentation pdf HERE

ZK-OXA delivered

Air New Zealand have taken delivery of ZK-OXA their first Airbus A320 with sharklets.  After a quick stop off at the Paris Air Show the A320 is now winging its way to New Zealand, with an ETA into Auckland of around 3pm (NZST) on Friday afternoon 21-June-2013

Here are some photos and video from the Airbus delivery ceremony (from Airbus)

And some images of ZK-OXA at the Paris Air Show

pic from newstalkzb.co.nz

pic from worldairlinenews.com

pic from australianaviation.com.au

pic from washingtonpost.com

Video of ZK-OXA at the Paris Air Show can be seen HERE thanks to 3news.co.nz

A few BNE movements from 23.02.13

Following on from my last post, aircraft pics are back baby!

My friend Tim was out at BNE on Saturday 23-February-2013 and captured some of the departures from runway 01.

You can find Tim on twitter @timstewartnz

Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-342 B-LAH operating CX146 BNE-CNS-HKG

Qantas Boeing 767-338ER VH-OGH operating QF525 BNE-SYD

 Qantas Boeing 747-438ER VH-OEJ operating QF15 BNE-LAX

Air New Zealand Boeing 777-319ER  ZK-OKN operating NZ136 BNE-AKL

 Etihad Airbus A330-243 A6-EYH operating EY473 BNE-SIN-AUH

QF 763's begin to depart

As die hard avgeek readers will know Qantas have a somewhat orphan sub fleet in their 767-300ER fleet with 7 ex British Airways Rolls Royce powered 763s.  These aircraft were registered in the VH-ZX* range.

These aircraft have always presented problems for Qantas, and they have long been flagged for retirement, but with replacement delays etc they have remained in the fleet.  Until now.  The first of the 7 to be retired is VH-ZXB which was flown from Sydney to Roswell New Mexico for desert storage.

These 7 frames are slowly being replaced by additional B738 capacity and A332s, both new A332s (see previous article) or older A332s returning to QF as JQ gets 787s

Australian Aviation has a short piece about ZXB's departure HERE