VH-EBN is back in action

VH-EBI hasn't flown since arriving in Brisbane from Perth on 08/01

EBI is just in for a basic C check (week or so long)
EBA is getting done at the moment! The non panasonic ife -200's need a -300 to go before them coz the -200's get the economy seats outta the -300's

Hi Astewart,

Just out of curiosity - why would the non-pana 332s be getting economy seats from the 333s? I thought the plan was that they would keep their current economy seats and get iPads to hook up to the onboard Qstreaming system.

In any case, the 333 economy seats only have a bracket for the Rockwell Collins PTVs, which these 332s are not going to be getting presumably?

Aren't the original 332 and 333 seats similar anyway?

Why the change over?

Thanks

The 333's seats are the next model up! Not much difference really

Not sure where he got the idea, it was never the plan.

The plan was all A330-200's would keep existing seats that would be refurbished. Those currently without individual Y screens would get the Panasonic server with Q Streaming, fixed screens in J and IPads in economy, those with fixed screens in Y, would get the same server with Q streaming, but the existing (Panasonic) screen would stay.

What wasn't clear however is what will happen to the 4 international configured A330-200's as these have Rockwell Collins screens which are not compatible with the new Panasonic server, whereas the later A330-200's already had Panasonic screens, so just needed a server upgrade. So either they need new seats with a Panasonic screen, ala the 333's or screens removed and IPad instead. One issue is depending upon who you listen to the two 332's to leave may be one of these 4 or one of the earlier 332's.

The answer I guess is if Qantas is going to still keep a subfleet of 332's for international ops. They need them of course, but once the other gets the new J, what is down the back is less important, or they may just decide to keep the latter units as domestic/international subfleet and the IPad ones dedicated domestic.

If the QF press releases are to be taken at face value, the later ones only mention A330s for international without being specific as to whether they are -200s or -300s, which leads me to think that they will probably refurbish the current international -200s to have the same seats (both in J and Y) as the -300s.

Hopefully, the two birds being returned are EBJ and EBK rather than any of the four current international 332s so we will have two less of the iPad aircraft as I thought the system on the 767 was really getting a little dysfunctional towards the end of their life.

Actually the press release only referred to international A330-300's and domestic A330-200's, but as written a bit hard to take on absolute face value as it leaves a few unanswered questions, such as what was being done with the 4 international 332's.

Were they as inferred going to domestic only? If so what will happen to A330 flying that currently uses 332's? Whilst there isn't enough international flying at present to justify 4, there are also not enough 333's to do all international flights. So something is not really that clear.

Hi Ash,

The reason I said they have changed their tune re: the -200s is because if you check out the A330 page on their website now, it does not distinguish between the -200s and -300s for international, but simply says "international A330s".

They will definitely still need the subfleet of international A330-200s as I am guessing that the 10 A330-300s they have designated for international flying will probably not suffice. On very rough calculations, they have about 11 lines of flying for the transcontinental domestic routes and this is not including the one or two east coast triangle runs that they usually do on weekdays so it is quite likely that either there will be one or two international -200s on regular domestic duties (like they do currently).

I don't think it is a matter of changing their tune, as I mentioned even the early press releases were not clear about what would happen to the 4 international -200's. What NEEDS to happen to them, as they have Rockwell Collins personal IFE neither fitted with what they said they would do to the non personal IFE equipped 332's nor the personal IFE equiped 332's.

As for how Qantas describes A330's on their seat map page, nothing has changed actually. With the -300's they never described them as international, because all of them were international. Of course they saw domestic duties from time to time.

With the -200's they always listed the separate international config as international, and the various other configs as domestic.