Airliners-India

karatecatman

V Australia goes for VVVery long range 777s
November 6, 2009

Ben Sandilands
While there are a few minor details to be nailed down, such as finance, V Australia is poised to acquire enough Boeing 777-200LRs to launch non-stop flights between Sydney and New York City, and Perth and London, in the relatively near future.

The deal appeared to be set for an official announcement as soon as next Wednesday, exquisitely timed to come out just before Qantas CEO Alan Joyce delivers a much anticipated speech about its immediate plans at a National Aviation Press Club luncheon in Sydney.

The Sydney-New York (JFK) route has a minimum or great circle distance of 16,013 kilometres, compared to the current non-stop record holding route between Singapore and Newark of 15,345 kilometres, flown by Airbus A340-500s.

New York is a very important destination for Qantas, which serves it via Los Angeles and it is rumoured to be contemplating extending its trans Pacific A380 services to JFK to protect its strong sales on the route to premium fare paying business travellers.

However Qantas will have no such answer to the other intended use of V Australia 777-200LRs, which is to offer non-stop flights between Perth and London’s Gatwick airport.

The reality of these ultra long range routes is trip times of around 17.5 hours on the Perth-London non-stops and more than 19 hours westbound out of JFK to Sydney.

Virgin Blue’s plans for the in-flight service levels, and essentials like spare wash rooms are yet to be revealed. It might even copy the Singapore Airlines one person morgue near its rear galley, set aside in case someone dies somewhere far out, such as near the North Pole.

The big V’s plans are starting to come together. The deal to joint venture the trans Pacific routes with Delta, which also uses Boeing 777-200LRs, looks very certain of gaining final approvals in both Australia and the US.

V Australia’s existing 777-300ER flights to Los Angeles will be expanded to include Phuket, Fiji and Johannesburg next year.

Perth-London will, if approved and launched, become its kangaroo route beach head. And if the worst comes to pass in terms of fuel prices, or diminished premium market support, both versions of the 777 are capable of carrying large numbers of economy passengers at low cost over routes where an A380 may prove too large.

High fuel and low premium demand are the joint natural enemies of ultra long range flying. But ultra long range jets, which means 777-200LRs or A345s, are alternatively very good at lifting maximum cargo and high seat count economy configurations over distances where ‘ordinary’ long range jets begin to trade payload for range.
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Manish Soni · Member Joined: 09 Sep 2009 Posts: 51 Location: Mumbai

karatecatman

sammyk

Manish Soni · Member Joined: 09 Sep 2009 Posts: 51 Location: Mumbai

4 delivered, 3 more on order - http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2009/q1/090206c_nr.html

If you have a look at the 777 order book, there's no mention of VA for now, lets see how long 'in the relatively near future' is Wink