Revamped QLink 717s

[Rowan McKeever]

Hi All

According to Australian Business Traveller the first refurbished / revamped QantasLink 717 is now in service. Does anyone know the rego etc?

Cheers
Rowan

http://www.ausbt.com.au/qantaslink-debuts-refurbished-boeing-717-slim-seats-but-more-of-them

[Stefan Perkas]

Rowan,

I believe it is VH-NXH. It ferried Adelaide-Perth yesterday. I think VH-NXD is next as it was due into Adelaide this afternoon.

[Rowan McKeever]

Thanks Stefan! Crossing fingers NXH will be on my ASP-DRW enxt Wednesday evening!

[Rowan McKeever]

Sorry to drag this up again folks... wondering if anyone (Stefan) might know when NXD is due out of ADL from its cabin refit? NXH took ~5weeks which NXD is sitting on I think, but with Christmas / NY wondering if it'll be in a bit longer? Also curious if its next stop will be PER to re-enter service or TSV for repaint?

Cheers
Rowan

[Stefan Perkas]

Hi Rowan,

VH-NXD departed Adelaide yesterday afternoon to Perth. VH-NXK is ferrying over to Adelaide from Perth at the moment under its new callsign 'Q-Jet6200' under the flight number 'QJE6200'.

[Rowan McKeever]

Thanks Stefan, saw NXD's ferry flight through flightaware yesterday but grateful the info on NXK.

Interesting the 717s are now using a company callsign rather than their NXx. When did that change happen? Listening to liveatc this morning it sounds pretty recent as a couple of pilots have started using the rego and corrected themselves.

Cheers
Rowan

[Stefan Perkas]

Rowan,

The new callsigns began today.

[Rowan McKeever]

Haha thought as much, sounded a lot like the first day of 'Velocity'! Ta very much Stefan, cheers

[Greg Hyde]

Any word on whether the new old ones announced last week will be reconfigured before they enter service ?

[Rowan McKeever]

Hi Greg, the media release from QF states '125 seat' but depending where the units are coming from they may or may not already be 125 seat... I'd say it's safe to assume they'll be the same as NXH and NXD though. Cheers, Rowan

[Greg Hyde]

I expect that they will come from the same source as there are still some ex-Mexicana-Click 717's stored, looking for a new home

[Greg Hyde]

Skyliners is reporting a B717 move to Florida.

Boeing 717
-2BL
55177
5127
N409BC
Boeing Equipment Leasing
ferried 06mar13 VCV-VQQ prior delivery to?
ex XA-CLF

Is this a/c destined for Qlink

[Rowan McKeever]

G'day Greg... seems pretty likely!? So should be in Oz in 1-2 months presumably? Will they do the cabin outfitting at VQQ or in ADL like the current refurbs? Anyone know what the regos will be - the only unused NX* marks are NXF and NXU which are both currently unreserved?

[Rowan McKeever]

NXL in Adelaide presumably undergoing refit, arrived either yesterday or today. NXD appears to be the first refitted 717 to venture out of WA on a scheduled service, currently somewhere around Gove. Finally, other sources are saying N409BC / 5127 is for Volotea, not Cobham...

[Stefan Perkas]

Evening all,

Looks like the B717's will be re-configured again....

http://yssyforum.net/board/showthread.php?t=9217

[Rowan McKeever]

Hi folks!

Where is the refit program up to now? NXH, NXD, NXK, NXL... I think I saw NXR had been in Adelaide as well? Are there any others with the 125-seat cabin?

Cheers
Rowan

[Brad Myer]

9 have been refitted so far. Don't have regos sorry.

[Brad Myer]

Here are the regos of the upgraded B717s currently in service.

VH-NXD
VH-NXG
VH-NXH
VH-NXI
VH-NXJ
VH-NXK
VH-NXL
VH-NXM
VH-NXR

Only 4 more left to be completed.

Hope this helps

[Steve S... 2]

And the 10th (VH-NXN) is currently in Adelaide receiving the refit.

[Rowan McKeever]

Thanks a lot guys! They're getting through them!

[Greg Hyde]

Any news on when the new ones will start arriving ?

[Rowan McKeever]

It's all gone pretty quiet on that, no dates, no initial ops, no rego, nothing!

On the refurb, I flew on NXK this past Wednesday, which has the refurb. Felt like they hit the brief to me, 2 more rows but with the design of the seats it felt maybe a tiny bit more spacious!? Still a little claustrophobic with those boxy old overheads but I really enjoyed it!

[Adam W]

Rumour has it that when the 767s are retired the Q streaming iPads will be transferred to the 717 fleet.

[Greg Hyde]

The following ex. Mexicana-Click B717s are currently stored:

N406BC/55178
N917ME/55179
N795BC/55180
N408BC/55190
N925ME/55191
N926ME/55192
N927ME/55193
N928ME/55194

Rumour has it that these a/c will be either leased to Qlink or Volotea.

The regos ending in "BC" have already been transferred to Boeing (pre-lease).

[Brad Myer]

So that leaves 5 aircraft with the ME regos are they the 5 QF are getting?

Rumor is QF are chasing more than 5 717s to eventually replace the Q400s on the MEL-HBA, ADL-CBR, and look at starting ADL-HBA and a few other new routes.

Thanks

[Greg Hyde]

AirTran has 88 B717 which are reportedly being retired from this month.

Some will go to Delta while others will be excess to requirements.

So I expect the B717 availability to go up in the near future.

[Rowan McKeever]

Delta has committed to ALL 88 of the AirTran B717s.

[Steve S... 2]

According to planespotters.net - of the eight 717's listed above, only five remain in storage, because:

55190 is now active with Volotea
55191 is now active with Volotea
55192 is now active with Volotea

The five still stored are:

55178
55179
55180
55193
55194

55194 was the 3rd last 717 off the production line.

[Greg Hyde]

Skyliners reports:

Boeing 717 -2BL 55178 5128 N406BC Boeing ferried 02aug13 VCV-ELP-VQQ, for Cobham / Qantaslink ex XA-CLE

[Jarden S]

Cobham now recruiting for the 717. They are set to open 2 new bases this year: Canberra and Sydney plus Hobart in 2014. Cobham are also recruiting for Cobham Special Mission on the modified Dash 8.

http://www.pinstripesolutions.com/news/pilot-recruitment-goes-crazy/

So the 717 will expand even further with a HBA base could go to MEL/CBR and SYD or even ADL.
With the CBR base we know MEL/SYD/BNE already they may go to ADL/PER and even re-start the CBR-DRW run which the 737 was too big on that market as well. They could fly them SYD to Gladstone as another possibility.Will be interesting to see the new routes as they come about.

[Rowan McKeever]

I had the CBR-DRW thought as well but with that route being over 3100km and the 717HGW range being just over 3800km wouldn't there be parts of the year when load penalties would start to creep in? PER would be too far against the wind but I think ADL is a given at some point from CBR. I'd see HBA-ADL and HBA-SYD (increase frequency without a massive jump in capacity, if that's what they're looking for).

I don't see the CBR-based aircraft (which are JY configured) doing SYD-GLT, perhaps one of the BNE-based but the routing would have to be BNE-GLT-SYD-GLT-BNE which mightn't give them the departure times they want.

[Ryan K]

Here's hoping QF replace the overnighting Q400 in HBA with a 717. VA must be laughing all the way to the bank with that ridiculous decision.

Any chance we'll see the 717's make a return to LST?

[Ash W]

Rumour has it that when the 767s are retired the Q streaming iPads will be transferred to the 717 fleet.

Maybe they will be transferred to the existing fleet, because the press release was talking about the extras coming soon having the 'latest IFE' fitted.

Don't think 5, or any for that matter non refurb 767's will be leaving before the 5 'new' 717's arrive.