The amount of crew being advertised for the ADL base suggests that they would have enough crew to fully crew 2 Q300's as opposed to just having a spare.

The maintenance will be done by Cobham as they already have the licence coverage. They infact leased VH-SBJ OFF QLink for a while a few years ago.

Every now and again you may see an aircraft swap from the East coast, but it'll only be via a ferry flight as the Q300 would be severley payload limited trying to do ADL-CBR vv.

The current ADL-OLP flights require up to 3 x F50's a day so I don't see that happening initially. Have a look at where Rex operate the most flights ex ADL and that may indicate a potential target market.

Any additional 717 ex CBR would require a 6th J-class aircraft as the current fleet of 5 is fully utilised on the existing flying.

There is a lot of slack in the two - class 717 schedule, plenty of room to 'optimise'. Also possible that they may take it off ADL-SYD as that's a very busy flight (the two times I've flown on it anyway) and could operate with a 737.

Isn't QF making the decision it should of made several years ago. By not introducing a regional jet when the B734 was withdrawn and increasing B717 services.

They have lost the fleet flexibility to switch DHC8 for a RJ when demand is needed. As well as having an aircraft to fit the niche between a B738 and A332. The price is old aircraft with high fuel costs.

Unfortunately they do not have the fleet flexibility like VA as it can switch a/c depending on demand. They haven't moved with the times.

It coming I'm sure, those 717s will need replacing in the near future, they really aren't up to the task, I don't know if it was the fact they were in storage for a lengthy period or whether they are just a lemon (don't get me wrong I love the 717) but yeah, I reckon within 5 years they will be replaced. Personally I thought the 737-700 would have been perfect for QF, no crew training, ground crew training, etc. and they would be totally interchangeable with the fleet of 738s, sure they aren't the size of a E190 or similar but I think they are small enough to be worthwhile.

Performance wise at 525nm CBR-ADL is quite doable by DH8C. Bombardiers literature has it capable of 924nm at 50 Pax+Bags. They have flown the DH8C on BNE-LRE in the past which is 10nm longer than CBR-ADL. Block time was around 02:20-2:30

As for new route my money's on either Mount Gambier or Whyalla with Mildura as an outside chance.

http://www2.bombardier.com/Used_Airc...df/Q300_EN.pdf

Could QF maybe return to Kingscote on the ADL-KGC and MEL-KGC routes?

If I recall they left that route previously because they didn't have the right aircraft for the route. Is the Dash 8-300 suitable for these routes?

Otherwise, perhaps a MEL connection from ADL via MGB is my other guess.

Whyalla Council has been quite keen on another operator apparently.

Remember there won't be too many new routes as it'll only be 1 line of flying and they'll also have some slack for delays/breakdowns.

Airlines gets a large margin (profit) from Business Class seats.

Corporate/government contacts is like printing money.

VA E190s have business class seating,

QF has only business class seating in VH-YQS/T/U/V/W (B712)

Any service that does not offer business class is not a money maker.

That is the problem.

New QLink destination ex-ADL is Whyalla! Double daily Q300s from 13 April 2015.

http://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/med...lla-to-its-map

Qlink needs to link several major ports.

Q400s.
MELPLO
MELDBO
CBRNTL
CBRHBA

717
CBROOL

Whilst generally traffic would be leisure/VFR, bypassing the larger ports would enable a slight premium in yields.