Qantas: Final Project Sunrise test flight

The final test flight in the current run of Project Sunrise Dreamliner delivery flights from London and New York to the east coast of Australia has arrived.

Different flight?

This flight apparently was delayed on its departure from New York by a little over an hour, departing at 10:05 pm rather than 9 pm.

Instead of the changed flow of service developed by Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre for the first two Project Sunrise flights that involved passengers adopting the Australian east coast timezone on boarding and modifying their sleep and behaviour patterns with exercise, food and light exposure, this final flight acted like a control and used the Qantas standard flow of service for these direct flights.

So this final flight will act like a ‘control’, to measure against the changed flow of service on the previous two flights. I’ll be interested in the results.

Project Sunrise – are we there yet?

Well not yet. The plane has been chosen – Airbus A350-1000, the service has been designed, the regulator is comfortable about the crew fatigue issues, and has given in-principle agreement. However, there are a few staff agreements that need to be sorted out – particularly with pilots. They claim to be close to an agreement, but still with a gap in salary and efficiency gains.

2PAXfly Takeout

My cynicism remains on this project – but I am finding it more difficult to maintain my hold out position.

On the other hand – these planes may just end up being the replacement for the A380, even if they don’t fly ‘non-stop’ on the project Sunrise routes, which now has Frankfurt added to the list of destinations that already cover Paris, London and New York.