Qantas has been flooding the wires with new releases about Project Sunrise. We’ll be covering that later, but in their latest update, the airline has plans for its fleet to boost capacity.
More “new” ‘roos inbound – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
The Qantas Group has orders and purchase rights options for up to 299 narrowbody aircraft and firm orders for 12 widebody aircraft with Airbus. Four have been delivered so far, with nine more to come this year, along with three Boeing 787s.
However, OEMs such as Airbus and Boeing are still trying to deliver, thanks to issues with the global supply chain. Qantas Group doesn’t see this easing, with rolling delays of up to six months for other aircraft, rolling for over the next couple of years due to global supply chain issues.
As such, Qantas Group has gone shopping to acquire several mid-life A320-family aircraft for freight and resource customers to help offset these delays.
Depending on circumstances and market conditions, these aircraft can either be retained by the group or retire the aircraft from service, if needed.
The new additions
In summary, the changes are:
- Five mid-life A319/320 aircraft to support the growth of the resources market in Western Australia, for delivery in Fiscal Year 2024.
- Three additional mid-life A321P2F aircraft to accelerate the renewal of Qantas Freight fleet, for delivery in Fiscal Year 2024/25.
- Two additional A320s for Jetstar Asia, for delivery in the mid-calendar year 2023, bringing the fleet back to nine aircraft.
- Options for up to 12 additional E190 aircraft to be wet-leased from Alliance Airlines to provide increased capacity and network connectivity in the domestic market.
- Exercising nine existing purchase right options for A220 aircraft, for delivery in Fiscal Year 2026/2027 as part of the “Project Winton” deal with Airbus.
In Quotes
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said:
“We’re at the start of a major update of the Qantas Group fleet that will unlock a lot of benefits. The aircraft we have on order will help us lower emissions, expand our network, create new jobs and ultimately serve our customers better.
“Aircraft manufacturers are seeing the same supply chain delays as a lot of other industries and we’ve been told that some of our deliveries will be pushed back by up to six months.
“When you combine the delays with the sustained growth in travel demand that we’re seeing, we need to find other ways to lift capacity in the short and medium term.
“Wet leasing more aircraft from Alliance Airlines will provide a very rapid injection of extra capacity domestically, but with plenty of flexibility to adjust that over time depending on what is happening in the market.
“The arrival of new narrowbody aircraft into Jetstar, in particular, was creating a pipeline for existing aircraft to be used for freight and resources markets. Given the new aircraft are delayed, we’ll buy a number of second hand A319/320s to make sure we can still meet demand from our customers.
“Jetstar Asia shrank during the pandemic but with travel in Asia rebounding, now is the right time to put two aircraft back in.
“We’re fortunate to have the scale and the balance sheet to make these decisions, as well as a lot of flexibility in our fleet plan to make adjustments as we need to.”
Filling in the delivery gap
The delivery gap is real and airlines around the world are working out how to address the gap whilst the big OEMs try and push forward for their future plans. Older aircraft may not be that desirable, as they will come with higher costs to operate (in terms of fuel and maintenance, sacrificing some of the benefits of a fresh-off-production line aircraft).
However, for Qantas Group, it will fill the capacity gaps the airline is forecasting. With the airline group bullish after returning to profit, it seems it wants to grow in line with plans, supporting markets passenger and freight, domestically and internationally.
And they may be worth the cost – even if they are used for a few years before being sold on, redeployed or parted out.
And as for Project Sunrise?
The first renderings and videos are out. We’ll have some thoughts and comments much later on.
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