Qantas is on the cusp of a new era in long-haul travel as it prepares to take delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on Monday.
The first of eight 787-9s the airline has on firm order is due to be formally handed over to Qantas at Boeing’s Everett facilities on Monday (US time) before it departs on its ferry flight to Australia on Tuesday and arrives in Sydney on Friday morning.
That first aircraft, registered VH-ZNA, will be quickly followed by the next seven aircraft over the next 12 months through to November 2018. The second Qantas 787-9 is in fact already on the final assembly line at Boeing’s Everett plant ahead of its delivery to the airline in early December, and it will be followed by aircraft three in January and aircraft four in mid-March, Qantas International chief executive Gareth Evans confirmed on Sunday.
Those four aircraft will allow Qantas to launch its Perth-London flights, pioneering nonstop commercial airline services between Australia and Europe for the first time.
“The four aircraft are actually patterned together so that the aircraft run Los Angeles-Melbourne-Perth-London in a sort of smile pattern,” Evans told media at Boeing’s Everett plant on Sunday (US time).
The first of eight 787-9s the airline has on firm order is due to be formally handed over to Qantas at Boeing’s Everett facilities on Monday (US time) before it departs on its ferry flight to Australia on Tuesday and arrives in Sydney on Friday morning.
That first aircraft, registered VH-ZNA, will be quickly followed by the next seven aircraft over the next 12 months through to November 2018. The second Qantas 787-9 is in fact already on the final assembly line at Boeing’s Everett plant ahead of its delivery to the airline in early December, and it will be followed by aircraft three in January and aircraft four in mid-March, Qantas International chief executive Gareth Evans confirmed on Sunday.
Those four aircraft will allow Qantas to launch its Perth-London flights, pioneering nonstop commercial airline services between Australia and Europe for the first time.
“The four aircraft are actually patterned together so that the aircraft run Los Angeles-Melbourne-Perth-London in a sort of smile pattern,” Evans told media at Boeing’s Everett plant on Sunday (US time).
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