Aviation Avenue 2

Today we are looking at the Qantas 787 and where it will be flying.

There are two routes that have been confirmed for the Qantas Boeing 787 

• QF9/10 Melbourne-Perth-London
• QF93/94/95/96 Melbourne-Los Angeles

When the 787 first arrives in October 2017, it will likely fly various proving routes on domestic flights, thses are likely to be on the following routes

• Sydney-Melbourne
• Sydney-Perth
• Melbourne-Perth

After these flights, once the second 787 in December 2017 arrives, they will take over QF96/96 on a daily basis from the 747s that currently operate the service which will be retired. When the third 787 arrives in Feburary 2018, it will be rostered onto QF93/94 three days a week, with the A380 currently used on the service put on QF127/128 Sydney-Hong Kong three days a week. 

Once the fourth 787 arrives in March, all four 787s will be rostered onto the following pattern; Melbourne-Perth-London-Perth-Melbourne-Los Angeles-Melbourne. These flights will have the following flight numbers; QF9-QF9-QF10-QF10-QF95-QF96

The other four 787s are expected to arrive in the second half of 2017. Whilst it hasn’t yet been reported what routes these aircraft will fly, there is wide spectulation on what routes that they will fly. The most popular theory is that they fly a similar pattern to the first four, but using Brisbane as the east coast node instead of Melbourne. This would mean that QF15/16 Brisbane-Los Angeles will be operated by the 787 as well as a Brisbane-Perth-Europe route. The European port is likely to be one of four options based on comments made by Qantas executive and passenger demand.

• Paris
• Frankfurt
• Berlin
• Rome

Beyond this it is likely that Qantas will order more 787s that will replace the 747s that Qantas currently operates. This could lead to the following flights becoming partially or fully operated by 787s. This is dependent on how many 787s Qantas orders with 7 more at the very least being likely and regulatory restrictions on two engine aircraft (ETOPS) are lifted or modified.

• QF25/26 Sydney-Tokyo
• QF27/28 Sydney-Santiago (ETOPS dependent)
• QF63/64 Sydney-Johannesburg (ETOPS dependent)
• QF73/74 Sydney-San Francisco
• QF74/75 Sydney-Vancouver (Move from seasonal to year round rumoured)
• QF127/128 Sydney-Hong Kong (Qantas plans to operate A380s 3-4x per week)

Other new routes that have been suggested could operate with these aircraft in the future include.

• Melbourne-Dallas Fort Worth
• Sydney-Chicago