Qantas Conducts 3 Special Flights To Buenos Aires Amid Rugby Championship

These flights will be performed from July till September to coincide with the dates the Australian National Rugby Team is scheduled to play.

The Rugby Championship is a long-standing international tournament contested by four countries, Argentina, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. With the kick-off scheduled for August 6th and the games lasting till September 24th, Qantas is planning to operate three chartered flights to Buenos Aires for supporters to catch a glimpse of the sporting action.
Supporting the Wallabies

Qantas will be performing the trio of dedicated flights over the months of July, August, and September, utilizing its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. The first of the three chartered flights departed Brisbane Airport on July 29th at 11:50 and arrived at Ministro Pistarini International Airport on the same Friday at 11:20 local time. All departure dates to Buenos Aires coincide adequately with the dates the Australian National Rugby Team is scheduled to play.

https://simpleflying.com/qantas-3-sp...-championship/

Found via google

Thanks Greg

It will be interesting to see whether the last flight also returns via NZ.

VH-OQB heading home from Abu Dhabi this afternoon, due into Sydney Friday lunchtime.

Thanks for the information, Neil. VH-OQB is due to land at 11:52 this morning, according to FlightAware.

This will give QANTAS a fifth operational A380 and enable them to add another aircraft to the QF11/12 SYD-LAX-SYD route, making it a six day a week service from next Thursday 11 August, 2022. The Tuesday QF11/12 will be operated by a B789 until early December.

QANTAS will need a sixth A380 from 2 December, 2022 to operate QF93/94 MEL-LAX-MEL three times a week and the seventh A380 from 25 March, 2023 when this flight will operate six days a week.

Maybe QANTAS will have another operational A380 as a spare for the Christmas/New Year peak period. The timetable has an A380 operating QF18 from LAX-SYD on 7 January, 2023, making two A380 flights from LAX to SYD on that date, but this could be achieved by utilising the QF94 A380.

A380, VH-OQB is returning to service today, 6 August operating QF1 SYD-SIN-LHR.

787 deliveries recommence Wednesday, QF are down the line a bit, AA first up.

Do we know roughly what month Qantas will commence deliveries of their remaining 3 x 787's?

As noted back in June ...

I haven't found any change to these positions in the available aerial photography nor aircraft photo sites in later reviews.

It should also be noted that in addition to the 787s in storage at VCV, there are, according to the production spreadsheet, also 22 787s on the Everett Flight-line.
Boeing 787 production

Does anyone know why Qantas VH OQD has been in LAX for a few days and not yet returned to Sydney?

A380 VH-OQD is about to depart LAX-SYD and is due in tomorrow morning as QF12. It looks as though QANTAS substituted B789s on one return LAX-SYD-LAX sequence, plus the day off it has on Tuesdays.

Today was meant to be the start of the six days per week A380s on QF11/12 but a B789 departed as QF11 this morning. Friday and Saturday's QF11 are showing on FlightAware at this stage as operated by A380s.

With OQB arriving back from AUH last week QANTAS has been using this and other A380s on tech crew training flights of less than an hour from SYD. This will no doubt boost the available pilots to operate the additional A380 flights with daily QF1/2 and six days per week QF11/12 now scheduled.

Thank you James

Those short flights are more likely cabin crew training, not pilots

The QANTAS Media Release for the A321P2F order contained the following sentence:

VH-EBE & EBF are still continuing to fly domestic routes for QANTAS. One is due to fly to Dresden this month, according to an earlier media release and the other to Mobile in November.

Is there any update on the return to service of A332s VH-EBB & EBD? I presumed that their return to service would coincide with the withdrawal date of the aircraft to be converted, to maintain the existing level of A330 passenger operations. Can any of our Brisbane spotters tell us if either of these aircraft are currently in the QANTAS hanger being serviced?

VH-EBV A332 ferried SYD-HKG as QF6011 yesterday (16 August), is it for maintenance? Is EBV replacing another A332 which has been in maintenance in HKG?

I think Michael EBV is replacing EBO which has been in HKG for maintenance

I went past the hanger about 3 weeks ago. EBD was still outside and I saw a 330 tail inside but did not get the rego but presume is was EBB

Thanks - I was trying to work out if there was already another A332 in HKG but FR24 record only goes back to a month.

I think VH EBO has left Hong Kong and may be landing in Manila at the moment

Has the new A350 training centre at St Peters been mentioned here previously?

"Qantas is opening a multimillion-dollar purpose-built pilot training centre in Sydney’s south, as it gears up to run a range of new routes and aircraft to meet the renewed appetite for global travel."

Read more: https://amp.smh.com.au/business/comp...17-p5baiv.html

VH-EBO performed a 3 hour 30 minutes MNL-MNL test flight on Thursday August 18.

Thanks Michael. VH-EBO has a flight plan to fly MNL-SYD today but is late departing. The aircraft was flown to HKG on 3/7/22 for maintenance, then flown to MNL on 17/8/22 and performed a long test flight on 18/8/22.

It looks as though the maintenance was performed in HKG but the test flight in MNL. Luckily, there were no issues with the aircraft during the 2 hour ferry flight to MNL. Is this a usual occurrence?

Something may have been done in MNL, doesn’t make sense to fly there to do a test flight.

Anyone know why OQK has been sitting at LAX all week?

VH-EBO as QF6034 is on its way and due into SYD at 20:26 this evening.

Can anyone tell me what is happening with A333 QPG? Apparently been in BNE since 13/4/22 and looks like the only A333 not flying at present...

C Check

EBO re-entered service as QF81 SYD-SIN on 20/8, currently operating QF52 SIN-BNE.

Ben, VH-OQK has just arrived in SYD from LAX as QF12D operating this morning's QF12. I'm not aware of why it was in LAX for a week but guessing an unserviceability.

VH-OQB arrived this morning as QF2 and then departed as QF11 resulting in today's QF1 dependent on the arrival of QF12D operated by OQK. With the late arrival QF1 is now scheduled to depart at 6:00 tomorrow morning.

VH-OQK operated the delayed QF1 (scheduled to depart at 15:55 on 21/8 but departed at 06:53 on 22/8), it arrived at SIN at 12:34 on August 22. It is now operating QF7001 overflying Turkey, heading towards Europe - final destination is presumably LHR?

Interesting announcement by QANTAS this morning returning to JFK with the flight numbers QF3 & QF4 being used again. It is assumed that the flights will only operate via AKL until replaced by A351s as part of Project Sunrise. Air NZ will be ecstatic.

The other revelation is that it looks as though VH-ZNL,M&N wont be delivered until next year based, on the last sentence.

Source: QANTAS New Room https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/me...de-to-lounges/

The schedule for the New York flights is now up on the QANTAS booking site with departure from SYD at 10:05 on Wed, Fri and Sun with arrival in JFK at 17:15 via AKL - QF3. The return flight departs JFK at 19:30 same day with arrival in SYD at 8:05 on Tue, Fri and Sun - QF4. B789 operating with commencement on 14/6/23.

Further reading of the full QANTAS end of year announcement has stated the following regarding its fleet:

Source: QANTAS News Room: https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/me...very-underway/

A couple of A332s are also still to return to service.

I think the thing with the A332s is that two of them are not returning to passenger operations, so the two that currently remain parked will effectively replace the two that are going for freighter conversion. So they're technically correct, other than the mild cringe where an airline calls them "787-900"...

BNE must be the 3rd class citizen with no 789's till whenever????

Depends on your perspective - I've seen in another chat where someone put a case that the A330 is a much comfortable aircraft for the BNE-LAX, but others clearly don't agree. I know which I'd prefer but to each their own, I guess :D

Interesting in the release that they say the other 5 A380's will be back by Dec 23. I thought they may come back a little sooner than that with the current demand? Or don't they have enough pilots and crew to operate them?

I do see the A380's will be back in MEL operating 93/94 a few times a week from early December this year based on their ticketing system. Guessing OQC and OQG will be next back into service.

To be brutally honest. I'd take the 330 over the 787. Not a huge fan of 787's but each to their own!

I take the A330 every time when given the choice of 787 or A330. The 2-4-2 seating is far superior for the travelling couple . Not a fan of the 787 , but that’s just my opinion .

Dave C

QANTAS is going to start plans to replace its 28 aircraft A330 fleet. Link to the story:

https://www.reuters.com/business/aer...et-2022-08-25/

Source: Reuters Aerospace and Defence

The following sentence from the news item gives some clarity on when the last three QANTAS B789s are expected to be delivered:

Ben, QANTAS need a sixth A380 from 2 December, 2022 to operate QF93/94 MEL-LAX-MEL three times a week and the seventh A380 from 25 March, 2023 when QF93/94 is due to operate six days a week. The fifth aircraft will be finally deployed on SYD-LAX from 1/9/22 to operate a six times weekly service.

It is assumed that OQG will be the sixth A380 brought back to service as it is currently in maintenance in AUH. Not sure about number seven as OQC has not been refurbished during its extended stay in AUH, as far as we know, and OQI is the only refurbished A380 yet to return to service, but remains in VCV.

As to where the last three A380s will operate is yet to be announced. SYD to DFW was previously operated by A380s and would require two aircraft for a six weekly or daily service. If this happens during and by the end of 2023 the tenth A380 could be used as a spare to operate at peak times to SIN or HKG, for example during summer, or to replace an aircraft in maintenance or with an unforeseen unserviceability.

We'll see how this all pans out.