QANTAS: First A220 on its way from Montreal to Australia

The first of the 29 Airbus A220-300 model Qantas has ordered is on its way to Australia. VH-X4A left Montreal in Canada after its Indigenous artist paint job, heading across the country to Vancouver on 16 December. It then moved on to Honolulu, arriving at 14:27 on the 17 December.

Next, it is heading to Fiji today as flight QJE6075 with an expected arrival in Nadi at a tad after 13:30 this afternoo. Next, it will be hopping on its 3-hourish leg to Sydney and finally to the Canberra’s QantasLink base for crew training. Arrival is expected mid-week, although Qantas has not yet released details.

Interiors

Qantas has not released any details of the aircraft interiors other than the seat count and map. The aircraft has 10 Business Class seats (2-2) and 127 Economy Class seats in a 2-3 configuration, which means only the hated middle seat on one side.

I would expect that they would take their lead from the design language of Economy for the Project Sunrise Economy Seats.

We do know that the new jets will have WiFi, something that is missing from the 717s they are set to replace.

Don’t expect lie-flat seats in Business class. Even though these aircraft are capable of travelling twice the distance of those they replace with significantly less carbon footprint, I doubt they will load them with expensive international-style business seats.

New Planes for new Executives

These will be the first totally new planes to arrive under the reign of Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson and the newly-appointed QantasLink CEO Rachel Yangoyan. Not a bad stocking filler!

The A220 bests the 717 for fuel burn, operating costs, emissions and perhaps most significantly, range, which is twice that of the Boeings.

A220 gives Qantas new possitilities

As you can see from the range map above, the Airbus A220s have roughly twice the range of the 717s they replace. This allows them to cover the entire Australian continent. The A220s can also reacy our Pacific neighbours such as New Zealand, New Guinea, Fiji and Tonga. But their range also stretches to Asia including Indonesia (Bali) from the Australian East coast, and Singapore, Kuala Lumpur Bangkok and Manila out of Perth.

With 29 on order, you could see Qantas flying internationally using these jets. At 137 seats total, these babies could open more niche routes and frequencies than their Boeing 737 and Airbus A330 cousins.

2PAXfly Takeout

As the diminutive A220s start arriving to replace the fleet of 717s, we may begin to see Qantas offer more routes, or increased frequencies with the agile jets. Expected to start service in 2024, expect Qantas to play with their domestic versitility before deciding on what it will do with them internationally.

Whether they will be desireable on three plus hour journeys to the Pacific and Asia, will depend on the quality of the seats and interiors which are yet to be revealed.

We may know soon. Monitor social media, as crew might be taking some candid shots before any official release by behomoth Qantas.