Qantas 787

[Peter C]

Originally Posted by James Smith

Forty days in pre-flight seems a long time for ZNK ...

VH-ZNK has been "tucked away" on one of the three bays immediately north of the Boeing Everett Delivery Centre since it was moved from the Fuel Dock sometime between 13th and 22nd. Its tail is visible there, in the centre background of two pics on the Paine Field Blog on 22nd ...

http://www.paineairport.com/kpae17979hf.htm

http://www.paineairport.com/kpae17981tx.htm

We haven't seen a Flightline panorama shot on the Paine Field Blog since the 8th, which is generally the only pic that shows the whole aircraft in those bays.

[C Patters]

Interesting to see what name they have given VH-ZNK

[Dennis McLean]

There are 3 787's on the ground in LAX as of NOW. D arrived from MEL on 25/11 their time as did E from BNE. A has not long arrived from JFK and is off to MEL. J has been in MEL since 26/11. It appears no 55 today from BNE so I assume that either D or E will do 16 to BNE soon???

[Peter C]

Originally Posted by Dennis McLean

There are 3 787's on the ground in LAX as of NOW. D arrived from MEL on 25/11 their time as did E from BNE. A has not long arrived from JFK and is off to MEL. J has been in MEL since 26/11. It appears no 55 today from BNE so I assume that either D or E will do 16 to BNE soon???

ZNE is now operating QF16.

The Qantas Source still has ZND under maintenance in Melbourne!

With the cancelled QF55/QF56 & QF95/QF96 flights this week, it appears that ZND operated revenue service QF95 as a positioning flight to LAX maintenance.

The domestic 787-9 services out of BNE this week : Friday's QF589/QF654 BNE-PER rotation and Saturday's QF513/QF540 BNE-SYD rotation, are being operated by 737s.

Leaves ZNE & ZNI to cope with the remaining 787-9 BNE-LAX connection, the daily QF 15/11/12/16 rotations.

ZNJ sitting in Melbourne - well, it was rather rushed into service with ZNDs sudden move to Melbourne Maintenance - possibly just a catch up.

[Peter C]

Just found a domestic 787-9 MEL-SYD-MEL rotation QF420/QF459 this coming Saturday.

[Erik H. Bakke]

Saw one arrive at the domestic terminal last Saturday, so there may have been one last weekend as well.

[Peter C]

Originally Posted by Erik H. Bakke

Saw one arrive at the domestic terminal last Saturday, so there may have been one last weekend as well.

Depending on the times of course, that would probably have been the weekly BNE-SYD-BNE QF513/QF540 domestic 787-9 service, which has reverted to 737s for next weekend at least.

[Dennis McLean]

The current situation of the fleet as of NOW.
ZNA - PER/LHR, ZNB - MEL/HKG, ZNC - In MEL from SFO, ZND - In LAX since 25/11, ZNE - JFK/LAX, ZNF - SYD/HKG, ZNG - LHR/PER, ZNH - MEL/SFO, ZNI - In BNE from LAX, ZNJ - In MEL since 26/11.
There was no QF56 LAX/BNE on Mon and Wed this week and no QF55 BNE/LAX Wed.

[Peter C]

ZNK is timetabled for its C1 on 9th December according to the Notes on the spreadsheet.

Now some crystal ball gazing ... up to now, since its arrival, ZND has been used to inaugurate new 787-9 services.

With the cancellation of the various LAX services this week as noted in #684 above, the earliest likely return of ZND from LAX is via either QF16 or QF56 on Saturday to Brisbane. It then appears to be committed to BNE-LAX-JFK rotations, before it could be swapped to Melbourne via QF96 on Tuesday 3rd. Arriving in Melbourne in the early hours of the 5th and even without positioning to Sydney - too late for the inaugural service on the 4th.

However with arrival of ZNJ in its 100 livery, it is now the most likely 787-9 to be used for inaugural flights, commencing with the SYD-AKL & SYD-SFO 787-9 services on 4th. This means it will either need to transfer to Sydney via the MEL-HKG-SYD swap route before SYD-HKG 787-9 services end on 3rd, or position there by 3rd.

[Greg Hyde]

The 9 Dec. could be right since the US shuts down for a very long weekend for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Eve/ Weekend are the BUSIEST time of the year for US Airlines/Airports