Qantas is about to undergo a fleet modernisation which will change massively which planes the airline operates in the coming years. At the moment most of the Australian flag carrier’s wide body ULR fleet is rapidly ageing. Therefore the need to think about replacing these jets is becoming more and more urgent. That’s exactly why Qantas has just announced to have placed an order for more Boeing 787s and A350s. Here are the details and how the carrier’s fleet will change in coming years.
Qantas’ New Orders With Boeing and Airbus
While the gears are already in motion to modernise the narrow body fleet, that was only partially the case for the wide body long range division of the fleet. In order to transition from older ageing planes to new generation high efficiency aircraft Qantas had to expand its current orders with Boeing and Airbus. These new orders will redefine the appearance of the long range fleet.
Qantas has ordered extra:
- 12 Boeing 787 Dreamliners
- 12 Airbus A350-1000
Those 12 Boeing 787 are split in:
- 4 Boeing 787-9
- 8 Boeing 787-10
When Will These New Planes Be Delivered?
Therefore Qantas will enter the quite short list of airlines operating the 10 variant of the Dreamliner. Interestingly the largest Dreamliner hasn’t been a very popular variant among carriers. Both variants will be fitted with General Electric GEnx engines. Deliveries are expected to start from 2027 moving onwards.
The 12 Airbus A350-1000 add to the already ordered other 12 jets of the same type. The first batch of 12 Airbus A350s previously ordered be delivered starting 2026 and will be deployed on “Project Sunrise” flights. Those 12 new ordered A350s on the other hand will be delivered starting 2028, so two years later.
Which Planes Will The A350s and Boeing 787s Replace in The Fleet?
These new planes will serve to renovate the fleet by replacing ageing jets and offer greater operational flexibility. Here’s how and why.
- The Boeing 787s will serve to replace most of the older A330
- The Airbus A350s will replace the remaining A330s and the A380 as they have a higher capacity.
However this process won’t be extremely fast, therefore Qantas will need to retrofit some of its A330s with its new cabins during the modernisation process to avoid having too big of a gap between its different aircraft types.
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