Sydney Airport Message Board Sydney Airport Message Board  

Go Back   Sydney Airport Message Board > Aviation Industry News and Discussion > Australia and New Zealand Industry


Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 25th August 2017, 01:24 PM
Greg Hyde Greg Hyde is offline
Prolific Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 4,428
Default The Impossible Dream or is it ?

Qantas seeks Holy Grail of nonstop Sydney to London, New York flights by 2022

Qantas is calling on Airbus and Boeing to deliver an aircraft capable of operating nonstop from Australia’s east coast to London and New York within five years.

The airline has for some time harboured ambitions of nonstop flights from Sydney to the two cities sitting on the other side of the world that are among Australia’s most popular outbound destinations.
And it is now putting down a marker of 2022 to achieve to achieve the so-called “Holy Grail”.

Qantas says no aircraft currently in service has the range to fly these direct routes with passengers and luggage at full capacity, while the two most likely candidates currently in development – Boeing’s 777-8X and the Airbus A350-900ULR – “can get close”, it says.

“Qantas has issued a challenge to both Airbus and Boeing to extend the range of new aircraft under development and make these non-stop flights possible by 2022,” Qantas said in a statement on Friday.

In still air Sydney-London Heathrow is 9,188nm, while Sydney-New York JFK is 8,646nm. Currently, the world’s longest route by distance is Qatar Airways’ Doha-Auckland service at 7,848nm.

The Boeing website lists the 777-8X as having a range of 8,700nm and a passenger capacity of 350-375 passengers. The aircraft is expected to enter service in the early 2020s.

Meanwhile, the A350-900ULR is understood to have a maximum range of 9,700nm, sufficient to operate west-bound Sydney-London flights against prevailing headwinds.

Airbus has not published specific technical data on the A350-900ULR. However, a Reuters report in April said aviation experts believed the aircraft would be capable of carrying about 250 passengers on a Sydney-London service.

Singapore Airlines (SIA), which is the launch customer for the A350-900ULR, plans to use the aircraft to operate nonstop from Singapore to Los Angeles and New York. It is reported SIA plans to configure the aircraft with about 170 seats.

http://australianaviation.com.au/201...ights-by-2022/
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 5th September 2017, 07:07 AM
Christopher Campbell's Avatar
Christopher Campbell Christopher Campbell is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Victoria, Australia
Posts: 315
Default

Airbus, Boeing bullish on new globe-spanning jets for Qantas

Airbus and Boeing have thrown their hats into the ring to produce ultra-long range jets capable of non-stop flights from Australia's largest cities to New York and London.

Under Qantas' ambitious 'Project Sunrise' program, the highly-competitive Kangaroo Route from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to London would forego stopovers such as Dubai and Singapore for a direct flight of upwards of 20 hours from 2022.

Non-stop flights to New York would be slightly shorter, at around 18 hours, while direct flights to Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town are also mooted.


Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce formally wrote to the CEOs of Airbus and Boeing on August 23, prior to the public announcement of the project, offering that "over the next 12 months we would like to work independently with both companies on performance and design parameters that would deliver an aircraft with the right range and the right economics for Qantas to make this vision a reality."

"This would ultimately lead to a competitive tender process ahead of a potential order for the successful aircraft type."

Joyce now says that "both Airbus and Boeing have responded to the challenge," telling Sky News that both companies "have said they believe they can create an aircraft by 2022 that will get that range."

Boeing is slightly more circumspect, with a spokesperson telling Australian Business Traveller "while we don’t share details of our discussions with customers, we are confident the 777X will advance the world’s most efficient twin-aisle family by providing the best payload, operating economics and range combination in the market."

An Airbus spokesperson says the company will "have the A350-900ULR in service next year for ultra-long range flights of up to 20 hours and we look forward to working with Qantas to see how we can meet its requirements for Sydney-London non-stop.”

However, Qantas has set the bar high for both companies, specifying that the long-legged jets cannot be fitted with additional fuel tanks and must be capable of carrying "a full commercial payload" of passengers, with 300 seats said to be the target.

Qantas' Boeing 787-9, which will begin non-stop flights from Perth to London in March 2018, has been configured with 236 seats – a relatively low number for the long-range Dreamliner.

This will put the onus on Airbus and Boeing to dig deep to uncover design and engine efficiencies beyond those already planned for the Airbus A350-900ULR and Boeing 777X jets.

Earlier this year Airbus revised the range of its A350-900ULR to 9,700 nautical miles (17,960km), up from an initial 8,700 nautical miles (16,110km) as specified for launch customer Singapore Airlines, which will begin flying the A350ULR in 2018 on non-stop services to Los Angeles and New York.

It's been speculated that Qantas could opt for a 10,000 nautical mile polar route between Sydney and London, to take advantage of strong tailwinds, rather than the conventional 9,200 nautical mile route across Asia and Europe.

Qantas is already crunching the numbers on up to a decade of real-world weather patterns on these routes to identify optimal fuel-saving flight paths for a world in which a transit stopovers would no longer be necessary.

It's estimated that the benefits of non-stop flights from Australia's largest markets to the likes of London and New York could allow Qantas to levy a 20% price premium compared to longer flights with stopovers.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 5th September 2017, 08:10 AM
Kent Broadhead Kent Broadhead is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Dulwich Hill
Posts: 549
Default

Interesting story, but I'm still not convinced about 18hrs, let alone 20, on the QF squeezeliner. Not sure how 50 seats more than JAL (for example) is a "relatively low number" for 787-9.

PER-LHR will be the initial test for whether people are prepared to pay a premium to travel normal economy for such a long flight.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 5th September 2017, 09:16 AM
Christopher Campbell's Avatar
Christopher Campbell Christopher Campbell is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Victoria, Australia
Posts: 315
Default

Could we be seeing an A350-1000ULR?
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 2nd December 2017, 11:09 AM
Greg Hyde Greg Hyde is offline
Prolific Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 4,428
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Christopher Campbell View Post
Could we be seeing an A350-1000ULR?
First out of the blocks

Airbus puts forward A350-900ULR for Qantas’s Project Sunrise

Airbus is pitching its its A350-900ULR (ultra-long range) variant for Qantas’ proposed nonstop flights from Australia’s east coast to New York and London as part of the airline’s “Project Sunrise”.

Project Sunrise – the name is a nod to the “Double Sunrise” flights Qantas operated between Perth and Sri Lanka using Catalinas in WW2 – pits Boeing’s 777-8X against the A350-900ULR from Airbus in a two-horse race for Qantas’s plans to serve New York and London, among other destinations, nonstop from Australia’s east coast.

Airbus vice president for the Pacific Iain Grant says the manufacturer is working closely with Qantas’s technical staff on the project.

“We are bringing out the A350-900ULR which is going to do a 20-hour mission so we are very comfortable with that, and we will continue to work with them to meet their requirements,” Grant told reporters during a media briefing in Sydney on Thursday.

“We are very excited about the Sydney-London project. We are heavily involved with all of the teams there.”

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is the launch customer for the A350-900ULR, with the Star Alliance member and Virgin Australia partner to use the aircraft to resume nonstop flights from Singapore to Los Angeles and New York in 2018.

Airbus has not published specific technical data on the A350-900ULR, stating only the long-range variant was capable of flying 19 hours and carry up to 165,000 litres of fuel. By comparison, the standard A350-900 has a range of 8,100nm and could take on 141,000 litres of fuel.

While most of the initial focus when Project Sunrise was publicly launched in August was on London Heathrow (9,188nm from Sydney) and New York JFK (8,647nm), Qantas has also earmarked Rio de Janeiro in Brazil (7,312nm) and Cape Town (5,946nm) in South Africa as new frontiers for nonstop service.

Currently, the world’s longest route by distance is Qatar Airways’ Doha-Auckland service at 7,848nm, operated by Boeing 777-200LR equipment.

While it is true the Boeing 777-8X and Airbus A350-900ULR are capable of operating those routes, the range versus payload specifications were not quite where Qantas believed they needed to be for either airframes to ensure the routes were economically viable.


Full story

http://australianaviation.com.au/201...oject-sunrise/
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 9th February 2018, 04:01 PM
Greg Hyde Greg Hyde is offline
Prolific Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 4,428
Default

Boeing making good progress on Project Sunrise evaluation

Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth says the manufacturer is making progress on its study into developing an aircraft capable of meeting Qantas’s ultra long-haul objectives while at the same time having as broad an appeal as possible to other airline customers.

Project Sunrise – the name is a nod to the “Double Sunrise” flights Qantas operated between Perth and Sri Lanka using Catalinas in WW2 – pits Boeing’s 777-8X against the A350-900ULR from Airbus in a two-horse race for Qantas’s plans to serve New York and London, among other destinations, nonstop from Australia’s east coast by 2022.

The 777-8X and larger 777-9X feature new General Electric GE9X-105B1A engines capable of delivering 105,000lb of thrust, new composite wings with folding wingtips to maintain its Code E rating at airports, as well as in-cabin enhancements such as larger overhead stowage and a wider cross section.

While the 777-8X is still in development and yet to reach firm configuration, the Boeing website lists the aircraft as having a range of 8,700nm and a passenger capacity of 350-375 passengers. The aircraft is expected to enter service in 2022.

However, the final specifications will only be known after further development of the aircraft design and an analysis of its engine performance.

Tinseth said the design work on the aircraft aimed to strike a balance between the range and payload requirements for a variety of different airline customers.

“That’s what we do, we like to innovate,” Tinseth told Australian Aviation at the Singapore Airshow on February 6.

“We can’t build one aeroplane for one airline and compromise the aircraft for the major markets.”

“We’ll figure out something, I’m confident.”

The 777-X program has received 326 orders since being launched in November 2013, comprising 53 for the 777-8X and 273 for the 777-9X.

Since Qantas put forward its Project Sunrise goals in August 2017, the airline has been meeting with Airbus and Boeing to share information about the requirements for an aircraft capable of operating nonstop with a full load on these ultra long-haul routes.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said a request for proposal (RFP) was expected in 2019.

“We’re trying to work on how we get the aircraft capable of being able to make the distance, but the important thing is not only to make the distance, but to make it with a full passenger load,” Joyce said during the Singapore Airshow Aviation Leadership Summit on February 5, according to a report from Flightglobal.

“We want both manufacturers to have an aircraft that is capable of doing it. If that’s the case we’ll do an RFP next year.”

It is understood Qantas was seeking an aircraft capable of carrying 300 passengers in both directions on both the New York and London routes.

Tinseth said the challenges presented by Qantas made it an exciting project to be involved in.

“I can just tell you we are making progress,” Tinseth said.

“We’ve have very productive conversations with the airline.

“We will weigh those issues.”

While airline customers will have to wait until 2022 to get their hands on the 777-8X, the first A350-900ULR is less than a year away from commercial service.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is the launch customer for the A350-900ULR, with which it plans to resume nonstop flights from Singapore to Los Angeles (8,770nm) and New York (9,534nm) in 2018.

Full story

http://australianaviation.com.au/201...se-evaluation/
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 1st March 2018, 11:11 AM
Greg Hyde Greg Hyde is offline
Prolific Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 4,428
Default

Qantas Project Sunrise contender the A350-900ULR rolls out of final assembly

A likely contender for Qantas’s demanding Project Sunrise requirement for an aircraft capable of operating nonstop flights from Sydney to London and New York has broken cover, with the first Airbus A350-900ULR (Ultra Long Range) aircraft emerging from the manufacturer’s final assembly line at Toulouse yesterday.

The A350-900ULR is the first of seven SIA has on order for the resumption of Singapore-New York and Singapore-Los Angeles nonstop services. The airline dropped the two routes, which were previously served with four-engine A340-500s, in 2013 when high fuel prices made flying them uneconomic.

http://australianaviation.com.au/201...inal-assembly/
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 8th March 2018, 09:13 AM
Martin Buzzell's Avatar
Martin Buzzell Martin Buzzell is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Yarrawonga, Victoria
Posts: 127
Default

It’ll be interesting to see what the bookings are like from Melbourne are like.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +10. The time now is 01:26 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Copyright © Sydney Airport Message Board 1997-2022
Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the Conditions of Use and Privacy Statement