I have just found an article on a website called Oz Traveller dated 12 September, 2019 on QANTAS pushing back the 744 retirement date into 2021.
The article in part states that:
Quote:
Despite Qantas announcing they would be retiring their final seven 747s by the end of 2020, the retirement date has apparently been pushed back to 2021.
A memo to Qantas Operations staff has gone out saying this.
It is speculated that new slots opening up at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport have something to do with this.
Japan has recently allocated four slot pairs, including two for Australian carriers, at Haneda.
Qantas already has overnight 747-400 Sydney-Haneda-Sydney flights. There is speculation Qantas will add daytime flights to their Haneda roster, keeping a couple more 747’s busy.
And that would only account for one slot pair of the two available.
Pushing the 747 retirement back to 2021 would allow Qantas to maximize opportunities at Haneda at a time when Australia-Japan air traffic is growing rapidly.
To date, Qantas has not publicly confirmed pushing back the retirement date of their 747s.
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Source:
https://oztraveller.com.au/2019/09/1...7-retire-2021/
This was written before Virgin Australia applied for one of the slots allocated to Australian airlines.
Is there any likelihood that QANTAS will keep their 744s operating just for the Japan route into 2021? The article does not say for how long into 2021 the 744 flights would continue. It may just be until the start of NS schedules in March 2021.
The inference of two 744 flights per day operating from Sydney to Haneda seems to be capacity overkill when two A330 size aircraft per day would achieve the two flights per day more economically, if two aircraft are available.
Is there any truth to the claim that a QANTAS memo has been sent to Operations staff confirming this?
It is a pity that an A380 can't operate to Haneda as there will be spare capacity after the aircraft refurbishments have been completed in 2020.
I doubt that QANTAS would split the Tokyo services with an A380 operating to Narita and an A330 to Haneda from Sydney when the new slots are approved and diverting one of the existing Narita flights from Melbourne or Brisbane to Haneda.