QF A330-200 Singapore Services
 

Hi all.

I'm genuinely interested to know at what point Qantas Management decided it was acceptable for them to be flying domestic configured A330-200 aircraft to Singapore? These birds have no seat back entertainment, but rather an iPad in the seat pocket and therefore no moving map and real time flight information, etc.

When they're up again the A380, A350 and 777s of Singapore Airlines, with their incredible inflight entertainment, it beggars belief that Qantas has allowed itself to get into this situation.

It’s inferior service at a premium fare … its is QF after all , so nothing should surprise us .

The aircraft have a moving map on the ipads, and also have WIFI over Australia which is a significant portion of the flight, so it’s not all bad,

It’s probably fair to say that these domestic A332’s operate more International routes than domestic at the moment. They also pop up regularly in CGK, DPS and even as far afield as MNL, some evenings there’s 4 of them gathered at Changi ready for flights back to Oz.

No flight info is displayed on the iPads and wifi isn’t enabled when these aircraft are operating Internationally, that is, unless things have changed recently.

From experience the seats don’t feel as ‘tired’ in the domestic A332’s.

You get the map etc if you use your own device and the app, and yes there have been changes:

Selected international flights now have Wi-Fi over Australia
We're expanding our inflight Wi-Fi to selected international flights. When travelling on a Wi-Fi enabled A330-200D or B737-800 aircraft to destinations including Singapore, Bali, Jakarta and Manila, you can now connect to the internet while flying over mainland Australia.

QF's problem is that they bought the "domestic" A332 and "international" A333 to replace just one jet: the 767-300ER. The 767 served this niche fantastically: 767s fly 40min flights in Japan and 12-hour flights in the US. But the A330 wasn't designed for this role; with its larger wingspan and engines, it's designed to cruise on long-haul routes very efficiently. And it would've been a great jet for Qantas, except they fitted it with a domestic cabin.
The QF A332 cabin product is great for a little hop to Sydney, Brisbane, or Melbourne, but I shudder at the thought of a QF15 or QF51 service on what is essentially, a very big domestic aircraft.

Brisbane is Australia's third Major city but we are still without a 789 on our only long range Daily service to LAX. United is using 789's and most other Overseas Airlines into Brisbane on long range flights are using 789's, 77W's etc. Our flight is a 332 (EBM to EBV) with Crew rest seats in the middle of the cabin. Just before Covid we had 3 789's operating to LAX and SFO with a 4th coming to operate to Chicago giving BNE 2 daily flights to the USA. It appears that BNE is only a second rate city now for QF.

QF has 12 more 787s on order. It doesn't have enough 787s to serve Brisbane with them atm. Perth only sees them as the country's western outpost.

Yes, the 332 is a lesser product, but Brisbane is the only major coty that can reach LAX with anything other than an A380 or too scarce in the QF fleet 787.

Hi Kent, I understand, but we did have 789 services until covid but now QF wishes to use them mainly out of SYD to extra ports even though they had 3 new ones delivered last year.

And now Qantas, or should I say QantasLink is beginning Darwin - Singapore flights on an Alliance Embraer. With no IFE, I can hardly see how this will be competitive with Singapore Airlines.