Qantas has reaffirmed its commitment to the Boeing 787 program, despite the long delays. QF group executive-Airlines Operations Lyell Strambi:
“If the 787 lives up to its promise it will be a major draw card. It will stand out in customers’ minds and I think it will be the plane of choice.”
QF has 50 787's on order. The first 788's will go to Jetstar, but the first 789's (due in 2014) are supposed to go to Qantas first. Altough no final decision has been made.
Strambi also said that in the longer term he sees the Qantas fleet as: Airbus A380, Boeing 787 and Boeing 737. (this is for QF only, as Jetstar will be operating the A320).
Thursday QF will take delivery of its 175th Boeing aircraft, a B737-800.
Furthermore Boeing confirmed this week that they are evaluating the entry into service timing for the 777-300ER replacement and for the 787-10.
The 777 is one of the most succesfull widebody families ever, but will be challenged by the A350-1000. So under the name 777-8X en 777-9X Boeing is looking at the replacement for the B777-200LR and the B777-300ER. A carbonfibre wing and changes to the fuselage and improved engines are named as the possible improvements.
Emirates and Qatar both have the A350-1000 on order, but are not really happy with the improved version of it announced by Airbus recently. Emirates said this week they are fully coorperating with Boeing for the 777 replacement and would be happy to be (one of the) launch customer(s). They believe Boeing can easilly make a 777 wich is more capable than the A350-1000. Also Qatar airways said this some months ago.
About the 787-10 (as this is still a 787/748 topic
):
The 787-10 variant, seen as a "relatively small statement of work", said Piasecki, would be a stretch of the 250- to 290-seat 787-9, and would offer a performance of approximately 320 passengers, twin 74,000lb (329kN) engines, with a range of 6,800nm (12,600km), slightly lower than its June estimate of 6,900nm.
Ahead of the 787-10's potential launch, Boeing plans to introduce the 787-9 at the end of 2013, which is expected to undergo its critical programme review (CPR) later in September "building off the load and flight test data on the 787-8", said Piasecki.
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... d-new.html