Qantas Airbus A330 Fleet Refurbishment
 

Happy 2015 to all

This is the dedicated thread to the refurbishment of the Qantas Airbus A330-200/300 fleet over the next year and a bit.

Airbus A330-200
VH-EBV

Total Complete = 1/16

Airbus A330-300
VH-QPA (In BNE for refurbs since 3/11/14)

Total Complete = 1/10

On a side note, EBN has been in Brisbane for a week &
EBC has been in Brisbane for 5 days. Can anyone confirm if one or both of these aircraft have entered into the refurbishment stage?

Cheers,

Macca

EBN & EBC are parked or broken as the case may be. EBA is due to start its reconfig today.

What is the status of the two that were going to be sold ?

Does anyone know if there are any pics of the finished cabin available?

Photos are on Australia Business Travellers Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...4378256&type=3

Grazie Dan.

I think there are 18 x 200's to be done not 16. EBA-EBS and EBV, minus 2 to leave the fleet, which ones are they?????

EBJ and EBK are the aircraft leaving the fleet.

Does anyone know when VH-EBN will be back flying again?

With fuel prices falling, improved costs, domestic market recovering, international now profitable and slowly expanding... Surely QF would be better off holding onto the 2 A330s?

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.

Looks like QF have tried to clarify the A332 situation:

http://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-clari...nt-q-streaming

So out of 18 A332 10 will be iPad and 8 will have in seat IFE. So that means the 4 current international A332 will be going iPad only.

The count has come from the author of that article not Qantas, and right above that line it has a quote from Qantas (I'm paraphrasing here) that if the a/c has a screen it will be kept. So still a little ambiguous, so too the reference to the 332's being domestic.

I think the article makes it pretty clear that regardless of which two 332s are going back to their lessors, any one of the international 332s going for a refit will not be getting seatback screens in Y.

Guess we knew that was coming but it's still a little disappointing nonetheless.

No, that count and quote came directly from the Qantas spokeswoman.

So David, did Qantas say if they will ensure only the latter 332's are used on international services when required (bearing in mind they need 2 today for the current schedule) or if they will use any 332's including those without fixed screens.

Also as I asked in your article comments section it isn't too clear if streaming on the older 332's will be BYO as they are doing for the 737's or if they will provide an IPad as they did for the 767's and do for the 'newer' 717's.

Ash, I've reported exactly what Qantas told me - the issue of the international 332s didn't come up, and if it had then I'd had reported that as well, don't you reckon?

Also as the article explained there will be streaming on ALL A330s and it will support BYO devices but only from 'later this year'.

I'm flying to Singapore tomorrow on a media trip to check out the A333BS config and will have a follow-up chat with the Qantas product manager about the A332i config.

The streaming question still insn't answered. We have known from the first press release that all a/c will have streaming and will support BYO (though you confirmed this will be later not now), the question was if Qantas would provide IPads, on the non fixed birds like they do on 717's and did on the 767's or if it will be BYO ala the 737's.

Would be good to find out what they plan to do re 332 on international. Also, being pushy here, as someone on your site also mentioned, maybe ask about the 3 747's that are due for retirement what they are going to do to replace them. More efficent fleet utilisation or something else?

Thanks for all your information David! I hope you have a great time on the A333BS and wish you a safe trip to Singapore and back.

Ash - I read somewhere that on the A330s the iPads will be provided by QF. The funny thing about the Qstreaming system is that it worked quite well when it first rolled out back in 2013 on the B767s. However, my recent experience of it on one of the ex-JQ 332s was just that it was really laggy and really didn't work too well. The iPad also looked like it had seen much better days, which then raises the question of how well they hold up to use and abuse by passengers on a daily basis.

David-I checked about 4pm (i.e. after your post), QPA has a test flight scheduled tomorrow BNE-BNE and then operated 605 to Melbourne the following morning. Assume operating MEL-SIN, then SIN-SYD on Saturday....I assume you are getting it back on Saturday night?

Zac: we're on the QF82 SIN-SYD redeye (good chance to test the Business Suite for sleeping!)

VH-QPA as Zac has said is doing a test flight ex BNE currently.QFA 6115 is it's test flight number.

Does anyone know which A330-300 is next to have the re-fit?

As per David's article:

"Older aircraft which joined the Flying Kangaroo's fleet without seatback screens, including those handed down from Jetstar as part of the low-cost airline's upgrade to the Boeing 787, will see economy passengers handed an iPad to use with Q Streaming."

EBA (A332) due to be rolled out end of this month, I've been told EBB to follow end of Feb.

I had the displeasure of flying to Perth on EBB on the 19th December.
Drop down screens showing Teenage Mutant Turtles that required rebooting a number of times. Great but there were not that many kids on board this flight.
Interestingly Qantas gave me an addittional 1000 points for entertainment for this trip.
One cabin crew member told me EBB was part of the stolen generation!

I got to check out EBA today after it's first flight. J class is the same as EBV including the IFE. Y class instead of a built in monitor there is an iPad holder. Ipad minis are supplied and include a cable to keep them charged onboard via a seat back USB port.

Thanks Adam!

Two questions:

Does Y class have the new style seat covers and leather headrests?

And does Y class still have the drop down overhead IFE as well as the iPads?

Thanks

Brad, Y class does have the same seat fabrics. As for the dropdown screens I'm not sure, I'll check it out next time I see it.

G'day brad
I'm currently on EBA and as Adams has mention it dose have leather head rest and fabric seating.
Also new bulk heads, carpet and curtains.
During the flight the drop down screens have not been deployed.
Cabin crew have to do the safety procedures as the iPad minis are not allowd in the iPad holder during taxi, take off and landing.
Hope this helps.

Joe

Thanks guys.

So the Y class seat covers are the new (red) style ones like on EBV?

Cheers