8NP was expected to enter service this morning, but failed to appear

First four regos, 8NP,Q,R,S,Z


Seat Map

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/qantas-...irbus-319.html

According to a post on West Australian Airport Spotters, the first flight has been pushed back to Tuesday 1100 departure to KGI.

QF/NWK must be of paid next to nothing to acquire these A319’s as the frames either side of the ones that have been acquired and most of this early Spirit N50xNK batch have been or are listed as ‘to be scrapped’. The use of the term ‘midlife’ amuses me.

The QF fanbois and Marketing peeps will try and justify it by saying they are being acquired for low utilisation work and minimal hours.

QF a supposedly premium airline now flying ULCC aircraft.

Also a 28 inch pitch is pretty brutal for intra WA flights which you pay a pretty penny for.

Lufthansa, British Airways, Air France, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and more all have A319s older than QantasLink. None of the A319s they will receive are more than 20 years old, and the oldest one is still over a decade younger than their newest Fokker 100. It's quite a stretch to call these A319s "ULCC aircraft".

A ULCC aircraft isn't a ULCC aircraft by virtue of its age (indeed most ULCCs favour regular fleet renewal because aircraft require more maintenance and have inferior dispatch reliability as a rule). These are effectively a ULCC aircraft by way of their seat count which is the maximum permissible for an A319 with only 6 emergency exits. Their redeeming feature might be the streaming entertainment but I suspect in this day and age that's neither here nor there for many people and especially a plane load of seasoned FIFO workers.

I do agree with you though Lauren that age isn't everything, that there are plenty of airlines with older A319s than these, and that for the average non-avgeek they have to be an improvement on the F100s.

I don't think Qantas' comment about 'midlife A320 family' is that outrageous, really - I haven't looked at the others but 8NP has spent almost 2.5 of its 18.8 years in storage and is joining QantasLink for low utilisation work, so has plenty of useful life left in her.

My use of the term ULCC was in reference to the airline these A319’s have been acquired from, Spirit. They are in the same ULCC basket as the likes of Ryanair and Allegiant.

QF/Network had a problem, how long would the mining boom last ?

There competitors (QQ,VARA,REX) were flying "newer" airframes.

So to stay in the market (cost efficient, "newer" frames) they had to "upgrade to something". A319 was a good fit for the flights that don't fill an A320 and minimum crew retraining.

I've read that they may only be around for 5 years until they work out where the WA charter market is heading. It it is a good fit they may get more frames.

From my previous post, they are expecting 4 frames at this time.

Four frames sharing 5 regos

Thanks for correction Mark, 5 frames, (Keep an eye on those A220 s/n)

8NP entered service this afternoon,NWK6235, Perth to Kalgoorlie

8NQ is expected to arrive in early April.