Qantas Airbus A330 Fleet Refurbishment

[Todd Hendry]

I'm assuming they'll be used for PEK. They are the only A332's with a crew rest.

[MarkR]

Originally Posted by Rowan McKeever

It's actually been quoted as EBG & EBL that are under review. I can't find anything definitive (in all honesty, I didn't look overly hard) but from what I did find (registered address etc) I'm not convinced OAS Australia Investments Limited is part of Qantas Airways Limited, certainly not in the wat we've become used to seeing Qantas's internal leasing structures.

Did a bit of digging and it's Orix Leasing and Comm Bank.

[Rowan McKeever]

Nice one with your digging, Mark

Originally Posted by Todd Hendry

I'm assuming they'll be used for PEK. They are the only A332's with a crew rest.

EBM onwards also have tech crew rest for longer flights - seat 7A. One less seat than EBG and EBL but then again EBG and EBL were among those used for AKL-LAX back in the day, and only have seats in pairs (there are no single seats like there are in the new cabins).

[Dave C]

The seat in the cabin can only extend the fight time by 1 hour. So they can only fly max 9 hour sectors. (Might be 9.5, I'm not totally sure)

What I had heard was that these (these 2 and the other 2 that went to the RAAF) aircraft were all produced for Qantas to the same spec. The RAAF wants them as they are the same as the other 2 the just got, so the leasing company has jacked up the price. So Qantas is looking at wether they should offload them. As Todd says , they need them for PEK. They can't use any other -200 to fly that sector due to the limitation above.

The use of the seat in the cabin for AKL-LAX and SYD-BOM was a limited agreement, now expired, but it was only for the second crew rest, due to the requirement to have 4 pilots on those sectors. The aircraft had the normal crew rest also.

[Ash W]

Originally Posted by MarkR

Did a bit of digging and it's Orix Leasing and Comm Bank.

So one leased and one financed, so means the story about handing these two back at end of lease doesn't stack up, which was the point I was making.

Originally Posted by Todd Hendry

I'm assuming they'll be used for PEK. They are the only A332's with a crew rest.

Yeah that is the second thing that doesn't make sense, they need to use them for PEK. But beleive the issue which has lead to these two not being refurbished isn't crew rest, but galley space.

[Rowan McKeever]

Dave, where's your 9 hour limit come from? Is that from an EBA between QF & the QFi pilots? CAO48 permits a tour of duty of 16 hours for a 3+ person crew; within that, there's a limit of 14hrs active duty, 9hrs of which can be consecutive.

Originally Posted by Ash W

So one leased and one financed, so means the story about handing these two back at end of lease doesn't stack up, which was the point I was making.

No, both leased. OAS Australia Investments Limited is owned by Orix Leasing and Comm Bank, and VH-EBG & VH-EBL are leased from OAS.

[Dave C]

It's definitely in the agreement, but I also think CAO 48 talks about class 1 and Class 2 crew rests. In any case it can't happen in QF. Without those aircraft, or the use of a -300, QF can't operate an A330 to PEK.

[Greg Hyde]

Won't the A330 fleet be eventually be replaced by B789 ?

If the performance and fuel saving of B789 over the A330 speed up their demise ?

Considering with realistic B789 performance data now available could this be an initial fleet rationalization with the B789 less than twelve months from delivery ?

[MarkR]

Originally Posted by Rowan McKeever

No, both leased. OAS Australia Investments Limited is owned by Orix Leasing and Comm Bank, and VH-EBG & VH-EBL are leased from OAS.

OAS owns EBG and is Orix, EBL is owned by CBA air with is of course CommBank, both are leased.

[Rowan McKeever]

Originally Posted by MarkR

OAS owns EBG and is Orix, EBL is owned by CBA air with is of course CommBank, both are leased.

That's a horse of a different colour then isn't it, sorry folks!