The Australian national carrier, Qantas will acquire eight Boeing B787-9s to gradually replace five of its older Boeing 747s on Qantas I...
The Australian national carrier, Qantas will acquire eight Boeing B787-9s to gradually replace five of its older Boeing 747s on Qantas International routes and open up a range of potential new city pairs.
Four B787-9s will arrive in financial year 2018 and four will arrive in financial year 2019. This will leave the Qantas Group with its six youngest reconfigured B747s.
Qantas will retain 15 further options and 30 purchase rights for additional B787s, with significant flexibility over the timing of delivery should they be exercised.
The 787's new technology will reduce fuel burn, cut heavy maintenance requirements and open up new destinations around the globe.
Qantas chose the GE GEnx-1B engine to power the eight Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. This engine order is valued at more than $400 million (USD) list price. The GEnx-1B engine is the best-selling engine on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The engine has accumulated more than 1.7 million flight hours and more than 300,000 cycles since entering service. More than 1,600 GEnx-1B engines have been sold to more than 50 customers.
The order comes after, Qantas announced its strongest profit since before the Global Financial Crisis, a $505 million capital return to shareholders.
For the 12 months to 30 June 2015, Qantas reported an Underlying Profit Before Tax of $975 million and a Statutory Profit Before Tax of $789 million.
The underlying result is a turnaround of $1.6 billion compared with financial year 2014, including Qantas’ best ever second half performance, with all segments of the Qantas Group reporting robust profits and returning their cost of capital.
Qantas transformed when it took delivery of some of the first Boeing 707s in 1959. It meant many propeller aircraft could be phased out. The Pacific Ocean could be crossed more easily and the U.S. and London came a lot closer.
Qantas transformed again when, in the 1970s, the newly acquired Boeing 747s made long haul air travel more affordable for millions of Australians. The 707s were phased out, and international travel became a mainstream reality.
In 2008, the acquisition of Airbus A380 transformed the cabin experience with a new level of passenger comfort.
Qantas Group have a premium airline, Qantas; a low-cost carrier, Jetstar; a regional airline, QantasLink; and a charter airline, Network Aviation.
