shootingstar

I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on the routes the 3 new A330-300's will be used on. To my understanding, one is expected this month, and a futher 2 before the end of the year.

perthite

One would hope that some of the routes currently being served by 767's would be on the list to be replaced by A330 flights.

QF 777-300ER

Hopefully to get rid of some 767 totally!

SYDguy

Beijing is going to be a 330 from 09Jan, and isn't Mumbai going to switch to a 330?

QF NB

VH-QPH, VH-QPI and VH-QPJ are all expected before years end...

With the cancellation of QF 15 PER-SIN-LHR 744 service from FRI 24th MAR 2006, QF will replace it with a 333. So 333 double daily PER-SIN-PER.

333 starts Mumbai in JAN 2006. MEL-SYD-DRW-BOM-SYD-MEL.

There has been talk of BNE-SIN going double daily 333 like PER (from MARCH 2006), not sure if this will happen just yet.

beno

From next year all 10 A333s will be in service and used on:

Daily MEL-HKG-MEL
4x Week BNE-HKG-BNE
3x week PER-HKG-PER
Daily x2 PER-SIN-PER
Daily BNE-SIN-BNE
3x week ADL-DRW-SIN-DRW-ADL
4x week SYD-PVG-SYD
3x week SYD-PEK-SYD
3x week SYD-DRW-BOM-SYD
3x week PER-NRT-PER

That would use up around 8/9 aircraft.

QF also said they want daily PVG and PEK before the 2008 olympic games. Can't see that happening without more A333s.

infoworks

Are you implying they will take the 330 of the SYD-HKG run?

Platinum A332

Yes, Qantas will remove A330 from the Sydney-Hong Kong run from 26 March. Instead a daily 747-400 will operate on the route continuing onto London as QF 29/30.

As for Airbus 330 and new routes, I think a 2 daily Airbus 330 Brisbane-Singapore could work, as well as 2 daily Melbourne-Hong Kong, to feed onto the Qantas 29/30 service to London. Maybe even an overnight Melbourne-Singapore returning in the morning maybe providing feed to Jetstar Asia flights as well as Qantas to Heathrow.

I also believe Shanghai will go to daily so Qantas can drop the China Eastern codeshare.

What I would like to see is the Airbus 330 taking over the Qantas services from Sydney/Melbourne-Tokyo, maybe even providing additional frequency from Sydney-Tokyo to cater for capacity reduction. Why is an Airbus 330 used for Perth-Tokyo when Sydney still gets old Boeing 747-300 without Skybed?

beno

Because the A333 that ops PER-NRT-PER is tied into the morning PER-SIN-PER service.

QF NB

I would imagine that would really annoy JAL if QF put their 333 and Skybed product on the Sydney-Japan route. Currently there is a lack of competition and both QF and JL operate their older style cradle Business Class cabins.

There was speculation that the 333 would take over QF 69 BNE-CNS-NRT but I would highly doubt this would happen anytime soon due to AO out of Cairns, JALWAYS taking over a number of JAL BNE services and the perdominantly leisure traffic.

Hmm JAL have landing gear cameras ^

infoworks

IMHO QF has a lot to do to "earn" the premiums it charges for the poor seats on many of their flights (ex NRT is a good example, alternate QF 5 & 6 another [I know it's changing]) and I know they are not always alone in this.

It also totally frustrates me that it is so hard to get to Asia early with QF, so some early or overnight flights on "modern" equipment would help a lot.

Flying in to HKG ahead of a connection to Europe means a reasonably late arrival. I prefer more time on the ground, like delivered by CX 110 (HKG) or SQ 220 (SIN) but not as early as QF 31, althogh I have used that flight as I can always get into my hotel room in SIN withought the overnight penalty.

NM

Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that the 747-300 has 450 seats while the A330-300 has less than 300 seats. So 50% more capacity in each cabin. This is not a Dreamtime vs Skybed issue, but one of capacity.

Russella

Hi There,
I am travelling to Mumbai on Dec 23rd on 747-300. The return on 18th Jan is on theA330-300, so the change must be over the xmas break.
Russella

QF NB

Hello Russella, welcome to Flyertalk! ^

Are you travelling Business or Economy? On the return sector you will have Skybed, AVOD, new plane and the inflight bar

First Sydney-Mumbai flight with A330 begins SUN 8th JAN 2006.

David

RichardMEL

MEL-NRT really needs the 333.