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  #741  
Old 26th August 2019, 10:35 AM
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Christopher Campbell Christopher Campbell is offline
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‘Lord Howe Island‘ VH-OJU last commercial flight (SYD-LAX) will be on the 13th of October. An email from Qantas has confirmed that this will be a points flight.
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  #742  
Old 26th August 2019, 11:19 AM
Dennis McLean Dennis McLean is offline
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The round the world trip needs 1 aircraft from 30/9 to 19/10, so presume that OEE will be out of maintenance before that. The last HNL service ends on 29/8. SCL runs 2357 from 24/9 to end of S19 season. I guess they will be able to "shuffle" the fleet around
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  #743  
Old 7th September 2019, 09:44 AM
James Smith James Smith is offline
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OEE returned from maintenance in HKG just before curfew on Sunday night 1/9/19.
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  #744  
Old 3rd October 2019, 12:47 PM
James Smith James Smith is offline
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The Constellation Journeys' QANTAS 20 day around the world 744 charter from 30/9/19 to 19/10/19 departed Sydney last Monday for Seoul. VH-OEE is operating the charter and the places visited are:

Seoul - 3 nights; Jerusalem - 3 nights; Valletta (Malta) - 2 nights; Barcelona - 3 nights; Cartagena (Colombia) - 3 nights; Lima (Cusco/Machu Picchu) - 3 nights; and Easter Island - 1 night.

There is another Constellation Journeys around the world charter scheduled for 2020 using a QANTAS 744 between 29 April, 2020 and 16 May, 2020.
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  #745  
Old 5th October 2019, 12:32 PM
James Smith James Smith is offline
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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.
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.
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  #746  
Old 6th October 2019, 05:41 AM
MarkR MarkR is offline
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Doubt the change has got anything to do with Haneda, QF may have decided to use the capacity for seasonal flights and hence end of 2020 becomes early 2021 if in fact it’s true. Unlikely to use A330 on the new slot ex Syd, more likely ex JQ 787 equipment as they phase out the type for A321LR, although they could use the ex JQ 788s to free up A330s.The other slot of they get it will see the MEL NRT A330 rerouted to HND as a daytime flight.
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  #747  
Old 13th October 2019, 12:44 PM
Greg Hyde Greg Hyde is offline
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Is there life after QF for OJU

https://twitter.com/Qantas/status/1183170556121747456
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  #748  
Old 13th October 2019, 02:47 PM
Dennis McLean Dennis McLean is offline
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At the very moment 14.45 - OEE in CTG, OEF in SYD, OEG on the way to SCL, OEH in SFO, OEI on the way to HND at 13.24, OEJ on the way from JNB 13 mins to go.
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  #749  
Old 13th October 2019, 05:47 PM
James Smith James Smith is offline
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OJU has departed SYD for LAX as QF99 on its last flight for QANTAS with passengers. And then there were six 744s.

This week will see QANTAS with only five 744s with OEE on the Constellation RTW charter until Saturday. To get by there is no QF63 today, no QF73 tomorrow and added to the usual no QF63 on Wednesdays and no QF73 on Thursdays will see them through until the six are available.

Last edited by James Smith; 13th October 2019 at 05:53 PM.
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  #750  
Old 14th October 2019, 05:31 AM
Sean L Sean L is offline
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Btw, I'm pretty sure that OJU the last of the Rolls Royce powered QF 744s right?
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