Qantas 787 Ready for First Flight

September 26, 2017

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What to Expect
Where will it Fly?
Landing Thoughts:

Qantas is set to receive their first 787-9 in the coming months. Last week, the aircraft exited the paint shop at Boeing’s factory. The aircraft has been fitted with seats and interiors, and is slated to take its maiden flight in the coming days. The aircraft will be Qantas’ new flagship aircraft. The formal delivery of the aircraft will be in the next coming weeks, October 16th.

What to Expect

Qantas’s 787 is painted in its new livery, coined as Silveroo. The difference between this livery and the old one is the stylization of the word “QANTAS” on the aircraft, as well as a silver cheatline near the tail. Qantas has fitted the aircraft with their newest Business Class seats, as well as they will debut their new Premium Economy class on the plane. Their new P/E will provide customers with a more modern and comfortable seat than the current one. There will be 42 business class seats, configured 1x2x1. They will all have aisle access. Premium Economy will be in a 2x3x2 configuration with 28 seats. Finally, economy will have 166 seats in a 3x3x3 configuration.

Where will it Fly?

This is probably the coolest aspect of Qantas’ new 787, where it will fly. First, the aircraft will be used for crew training and familiarization within Australia. The airline will first deploy the aircraft internationally on the Melbourne to Los Angeles route. They will launch the flight to LAX around December of this year. Then, the aircraft will be used to fly the longest route in the world. Qantas will be the first airline to offer a non-stop Kangaroo Route. The 787 will fly for close to 18 hours and over 9,000 miles between Perth and London. This will dethrone Qatar Airways’ flight from Doha to Auckland as the longest flight in the world.

Landing Thoughts:

I simply love the new Qantas livery. It is simple, yet elegant. The 787-9 is a great addition to Qantas’ aircraft arsenal, what I find odd is that the airline only ordered 8. That’s a very small subfleet of planes for such a large airline. They even have more A380s that they would have 787s. I suspect that this will be a trial run of the aircraft, with the airline having its sights on a larger order. If the non-stop Kangaroo Route is successful, I can see Qantas ordering more 787s. This works well with their new partnership with Emirates.

As far as people wanting to be 17.5+ hours on a plane, thats a different story. I cannot imagine being stuck in an economy seat for so long. Personally, I would much rather break it up into two segments, and take more time. That being said, that’s just me. I really would love to see Qantas order more 787-9s and use them to the US and Asia, instead of their aging 747s. I love the Queen of the Skies, but they don’t offer an industry leading product on the aircraft anymore. Let’s see if they end up replacing her with the 787 in the coming years.