ILLUSTRATION BY QANTAS
Qantas is set to postpone the process of purchasing Airbus A350-1000 jets for the highly anticipated Project Sunrise to the end of the year as the current COVID-19 pandemic continues to cripple the aviation industry.
The airline picked the Airbus A350-1000 over Boeing’s B777-8 to operate the ambitious 10,552-mile route from London to Sydney non-stop late last year.
Qantas was previously trying to meet a March 31st deadline imposed by Airbus to commit to the order of the long-haul jets. This was later confirmed by CEO of Qantas Group, Alan Joyce; “Airbus had given us the delay until the end of March”. “That was based on the fact the slots were potentially valuable and could be sold to other airlines”.
Given the current situation that has been plundering cash stockpiles of many airlines and sent them running for reserves, the CEO of Australia’s largest airline reiterated that Qantas was unlikely to firm orders during this period. “We think in the current environment that may not be the case, nobody seems to be ordering aircraft. We would rather wait for the Coronavirus issue to be out of the way before we put a firm aircraft order in for the A350”, Joyce added.
Qantas had stated that Airbus has extended that deadline to the end of the year for the Australia-based carrier to order up to 12 Airbus A350-1000s.
Airbus’s offering, the A350-1000, is a further stretched variant of Airbus’s A350-900. It can accommodate 40 more passengers in a typical configuration, carry 15 Tons more and can fly 1,100KM (600 nmi) further than the A350-900. A single A350-1000 is listed at about US$366.5 million.
A possible further stretch in range offering was what caught Qantas’s attention as the airline was actively working to make Project Sunrise a reality. Qantas was also offered the rivalling B777-8X which also boasts a comparable range and fuel-efficiency.
Both will allow the airline to fly to the far reaches and destinations like New York apart from the flagship London route on an 18 to 20-hour trip from either Sydney or Melbourne.
However, the Boeing 777X programme was marred by technical and part delays with the first flight of the B777X only occurring in January this year.
After several crew research flights from Project Sunrise destinations to study the effects of long-haul on crew and considering the deals put forward by both aerospace giants, Qantas opted to go with the Airbus A350-1000 in December last year.
Qantas is expected to purchase 12 A350 aircraft with deliveries occurring 2022 onwards and commercial flights starting from the 1st half of 2023, if, everything goes according to plan of course. It is difficult to say with the current situation that has even forced Qantas to cancel all international flights and reduce domestic flights by 40% putting approximately 20,000 airline employees in a possible jeopardy.
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