Revamped QLink 717s

[Greg Hyde]

Any news on when the new ones will start arriving ?

[Rowan McKeever]

It's all gone pretty quiet on that, no dates, no initial ops, no rego, nothing!

On the refurb, I flew on NXK this past Wednesday, which has the refurb. Felt like they hit the brief to me, 2 more rows but with the design of the seats it felt maybe a tiny bit more spacious!? Still a little claustrophobic with those boxy old overheads but I really enjoyed it!

[Adam W]

Rumour has it that when the 767s are retired the Q streaming iPads will be transferred to the 717 fleet.

[Greg Hyde]

The following ex. Mexicana-Click B717s are currently stored:

N406BC/55178
N917ME/55179
N795BC/55180
N408BC/55190
N925ME/55191
N926ME/55192
N927ME/55193
N928ME/55194

Rumour has it that these a/c will be either leased to Qlink or Volotea.

The regos ending in "BC" have already been transferred to Boeing (pre-lease).

[Brad Myer]

So that leaves 5 aircraft with the ME regos are they the 5 QF are getting?

Rumor is QF are chasing more than 5 717s to eventually replace the Q400s on the MEL-HBA, ADL-CBR, and look at starting ADL-HBA and a few other new routes.

Thanks

[Greg Hyde]

AirTran has 88 B717 which are reportedly being retired from this month.

Some will go to Delta while others will be excess to requirements.

So I expect the B717 availability to go up in the near future.

[Rowan McKeever]

Delta has committed to ALL 88 of the AirTran B717s.

[Steve S... 2]

According to planespotters.net - of the eight 717's listed above, only five remain in storage, because:

55190 is now active with Volotea
55191 is now active with Volotea
55192 is now active with Volotea

The five still stored are:

55178
55179
55180
55193
55194

55194 was the 3rd last 717 off the production line.

[Greg Hyde]

Skyliners reports:

Boeing 717 -2BL 55178 5128 N406BC Boeing ferried 02aug13 VCV-ELP-VQQ, for Cobham / Qantaslink ex XA-CLE

[Jarden S]

Cobham now recruiting for the 717. They are set to open 2 new bases this year: Canberra and Sydney plus Hobart in 2014. Cobham are also recruiting for Cobham Special Mission on the modified Dash 8.

http://www.pinstripesolutions.com/ne...nt-goes-crazy/

So the 717 will expand even further with a HBA base could go to MEL/CBR and SYD or even ADL.
With the CBR base we know MEL/SYD/BNE already they may go to ADL/PER and even re-start the CBR-DRW run which the 737 was too big on that market as well. They could fly them SYD to Gladstone as another possibility.Will be interesting to see the new routes as they come about.