[TominScotland]

GivingupBA, I think the plan is mid-air re-crewing en route. An old Qantas 737 will be based in Karachi and will take off with a fresh crew, fly parallel to the 787, doors on both will open and crew will jump across in both directions. Qantas have stated that in trails, only 1 in 23.5 crew members were lost while crossing between the aircraft and they consider that attrition rate acceptable for this kind of manoeuvre. They will alert fishing boats in the Arabian Sea so that any crew members who do fall while crossing over can be picked up.

[Flightlevel]

Both directions are overnight (obviously) so 8+ cabin crew can serve dinner and some retire to their bunks and get a good sleep before breakfast and suspect snacks or even a snack meal service at an appropriate time since no pax will sleep 12+hours!
CX business class may well be competitive with a break in a HKG lounge and hard to beat unless you must get there or back in 18hrs! Time will tell.

[capetonianm]

Tom :

the plan is mid-air re-crewing en route. An old Qantas 737 will be based in Karachi and will take off with a fresh crew, fly parallel to the 787, doors on both will open and crew will jump across in both directions. Qantas have stated that in trails, only 1 in 23.5 crew members were lost while crossing between the aircraft and they consider that attrition rate acceptable for this kind of manoeuvre. They will alert fishing boats in the Arabian Sea so that any crew members who do fall while crossing over can be picked up.

Not the smartest thing to say on a public forum. I can imagine AJ’s beady little eyes going into overdrive as thinks over what a great idea this might be!

[GivingupBA]

TominScotland, you made me laugh, and I like “only 1 in 23.5 crew members were lost while crossing…”!

[rferguson]

It would just be one crew with a good amount of rest.

Take off. First service would take three hours tops. All back on duty for the second service say 2hr15min before landing. Leaves at least ten hours for crew rest. Split the crew into two. Five hours each.

[PerthWA]

Hmmm… 8+ crew all having a rest after one meal service and distribution of plastic snack bag to keep you going till they awake? Says not a lot about the officious ‘we’re serious about your safety’ message if the majority are asleep.

Cathay Pacific… I’m yours 🙂

[rferguson]

The CAA regulates that 50% of the crew must always be on duty when rest is taking place (or if there is an odd amount of crew obviously as close to as possible).

There is absolutely no difference to a PER-LHR scenario than a SYD-LAX, or indeed SYD-HKG or HKG-LHR. Crew will take rest and this is mandated. 50% will always be on duty. It’s only the length of flight and length of rest that differs.

Obviously the two most safety critical phases of flight (and the most likely to require an evacuation) are take off and landing. It’s essential the crew are fully rested before landing.

[paulkaz]

Thank you Tom,the mid air re-crewing from a 737 to a 787 finally explains BA’s mixed fleet crewing concept,with QF applying it to one flight!
The next PER non stop flights are suggested to CDG,FCO and Berlin’s new airport. Should once again make Karachi quite a busy out station.
Jetstar aus has just suffered terrible Skytrax ratings so if word get s out about the mid flight crew transfer many Jetstar passengers might want the same option!No doubt at extra cost!

[PerthWA]

Sorry rferguson for suggesting anything other than compliance by QF crew as it was meant as a tongue in cheek comment. Particularly as anyone who spends significant hours on any QF long haul knows the call bell is merely an addition to continuous inflight night lighting and the galley is generally bereft of humans except those seeking sustenance. Unless of course one only travels F.

[Flightlevel]

Further to above PerthWA and GivingupBA the recent CX offer for business to SYD is only $400 more than Economy plus on QF via PER so really think most will choose CX when you can get the offer fares – and a break in the HKG lounge too!

[rferguson]

My QF source told me a good few months ago that QF were planning to launch PER-CDG which at the time I thought was a bit of a pipe dream. But it seems the rumour is gathering steam:

https://www.ausbt.com.au/next-for-the-qantas-boeing-787-non-stop-flights-to-paris

I guess it would make sense for QF to establish PER as a kind of ‘mini hub’ as the 787 is a perfect fit for that. The article talks about superb aircraft utilisation – BNE-PER-CDG-PER-BNE-DFE-BNE-PER and so on.

What will be really interesting to see is how QF’s desire to up their own metal to europe inpacts on the tie up they have with EK. This agreement expires next year and I know from my source QF are not delighted with the marriage. Although it’s helped them turn this european operations around QF feels that EK is very much being the bully brother. An example being DXB-LHR which both carriers fly and supposedly sell each others seats. The DXB-LHR service that originates in MEL has always suffered poor loads. Instead of EK pushing more business onto this QF service they added another DXB-LHR frequency of their own around the same time.

I think we will see QF having talks with QR when the EK agreement nears an end. When EK and QF first joined up QR had only two daily flights to Australia – PER and MEL. Now they have daily flights to SYD, MEL, PER and 5 x weekly to ADL. They have also said they will commence CBR next year. So will be interesting to see whether this would be a better fit for a partner than EK.

[TominScotland]

rferguson, interesting thoughts about QF and QR. Doha is also so much more manageable as a transit airport than the unpleasentness that is DXB although whether that will continue into the future, who knows? Given QR’s stake in IAG, this in turn may lead to a ‘kiss and make-up’ between QF and BA and a revitalisation of routings via SIN which so many of my Australian friends hanker after.

[Flightlevel]

QF really marketing the route with a new lounge (and custard pies too) if its a success they could operate an A380 on it with comfort if they add more economy plus seats so pax can get a good sleep – perhaps with a bar or live tv entertainment for 18 hours?

[IanFromHKG]

I agree that a tie-up between QF and QR would be interesting (not that I am likely to fly either as I don’t generally fly to Australia and since QF stopped flying to London via HKG, and QR on the HKG-LHR route is surprisingly expensive given the fairly inconvenient timings). QR seem to be aggressive in a rather different way to EK’s aggression. With QR’s closeness to IAG, the possibility of one-stop jumps to European hubs (and remember that for pax not originating from or heading to Perth, there will be a domestic connection in Australia) and connections across Europe from there on IAG’s network, it could be an interesting combination.

I can’t help wondering if the A350ULR could be used to open up other European-Australasian routes? I’m not a big fan of the B787 (although admittedly I haven’t flown it much – partly through choice!)

[AMcWhirter]

Ian – As you may know QF has already indicated it wishes to fly non-stop between Australia and Paris CDG and Berlin in the coming years.

But of course Berlin would be possible only when the new BER airport opens (not only is TXL congested it cannot handle ULH flights) and who knows when BER will happen … if at all.

Interestingly unofficial reports indicate SQ will be adopting a premium layout for its long-haul A350s which will operate non-stop between SIN and LAX/NYC.

It’s being said that SQ will configure these two-class A350s with 162 seats as against the 236 seats which QF will have on its long-range three-class B787s.

In SQ’s case there will be 68 business and 94 premium economy seats. Unlike QF there will be no economy class seating.

[Author]

Posts