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Qantas decides against ‘hub-busters’

Qantas Airways says it had been unable to find an aircraft that could operate non-stop flights economically between Australia and London and Australia and New York.

Qantas had sought tenders from Airbus Industries and the Boeing Company for ultra-long range variants of the Airbus A340 and Boeing 777 as part of its current fleet plan.

The Chief Executive Officer of Qantas, Mr Geoff Dixon, said both manufacturers had submitted aggressive proposals.

“However, neither the B777 nor the A340 provide an economical solution to our desire to have some of our services overfly mid-point hubs,” he said.

“As well, our commercial people did not feel the savings in elapsed time between the non-stop and one-stop journey was great enough to appeal to a wide enough passenger base,” he said.

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“We will continue to talk to Airbus and Boeing on further developing the options for longer-range aircraft.”
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