Qantas ! QF ! QFA !

Rolls-Royce, Qantas settle A380 engine dispute

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Rolls-Royce (LSE:RR.L - News) and Qantas (ASX:QAN.AX - News) have reached a settlement over an Airbus (Paris:EAD.PA - News) A380 engine explosion last year that forced a jet with 469 people on board to make an emergency landing and grounded much of the airline's fleet.

Qantas said the out-of-court commercial settlement would add A$95 million ($100.6 million) to its 2011 pre-tax profit and called off legal action against Rolls-Royce.

However, Rolls-Royce provided a lower figure and said the final deal did not change its guidance on the cost of the incident, which forced several airlines to ground their A380s, the world's biggest passenger aircraft, and replace some Trent 900 engines.

"The agreement is entirely consistent with the financial guidance given with our full-year results; that total costs to Rolls-Royce as a result of the incident were 56 million pounds ($90.6 million) in the 2010 financial year, with some small additional costs in 2011," it said in a statement.

Sources close to the deal said the main difference between the figures is that Rolls-Royce likely accounted for some parts and services at cost while Qantas accounted them at market or list prices.

Analysts had previously estimated the airline's loss from the incident would reach about A$60 million while the plane's insurer estimated repair costs at an additional $70 million.

However, Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce said repairing the damaged aircraft, named after aviation pioneer Nancy Bird-Walton, would take until next February, keeping it out of action for nearly a year and a half and resulting in further loss of revenue.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau blamed a disc failure caused by a manufacturing defect in an oil feed pipe for the incident over Batam island, Indonesia, shortly after take-off from Singapore last November.

Qantas immediately grounded its A380 fleet, forcing it to pull its biggest aircraft from some of its most lucrative routes for over three weeks during the southern hemisphere summer travel season.

The airline scrambled to replace potentially faulty engines and even pulled some new engines from Airbus production lines, causing a delivery delays of future A380s.

Qantas shares initially jumped as much as 3 percent but eased back to end 0.3 percent higher as investors digested the airline's warning that its international operations have to be restructured to save profitability.

Qantas said it expects its full-year earnings to come in close to market expectations but faced heavy losses on international routes and it continued to grapple with rising fuel prices and flight disruptions.

Other big changes announced by Qantas involve its relationships with Oneworld partners. A restructured agreement with British Airways means that from early 2012, each carrier will focus on one sector of the routes between Australia and London via Bangkok and Hong Kong. Qantas will eliminate sectors from Hong Kong and Bangkok to London, focusing instead on Australian routes to these points, and BA will end its flights to Sydney from the two Asian cities. BA will increase frequencies on the London-Hong Kong sector from 14 to 17 per week.

However, both will continue to operate flights between the two countries via Singapore, which will be their main hub for this route. BA is to upgauge from a Boeing 777 to a 747 on London-Singapore-Sydney flights.

This move allows the early retirement of the four 747s, and will also mean that “valuable landing rights at Heathrow will be retained for future requirements.”

Another significant move will see Qantas end Buenos Aires service and instead launch flights to Santiago. This will become Qantas’ gateway to South America, linking with Oneworld partner LAN.

Qantas veut les A380 les plus luxueux pour sa nouvelle filiale Premium


Publié le 26 août 2011 à 11h00 par Joël Ricci dans Actualité, Perspective - 0 commentaire



La compagnie australienne Qantas Airways a annoncé qu’elle programmait d’avoir les cabines les plus luxueuses de tous les A380 circulant actuellement pour sa nouvelle compagnie aérienne « Premium » qu’elle envisage de créer en Asie.

Qantas veut surclasser les cabines de Singapour Airlines, la
compagnie de lancement, ainsi que de toutes les autres compagnies
possédant des A380, à savoir, Emirates, Air France, Lufthansa ou Korean
Air. « Il y aura un produit top Premium », a prévenu
Alan Joyce, patron de Qantas à Bloomberg, qui a récemment repoussé de
plusieurs années la livraison de 8 A380. Les classes affaires et les
classes économiques seront aussi les meilleurs qui existent de tous les
A380 circulant, a-t-il aussi fait savoir.
La nouvelle compagnie Premium », qui n’a pas encore été baptisée, veut séduire la clientèle haut de gamme afin de concurrencer les Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific ou Korean Air,
a indiqué Neil Hansford. Elle sera basée à Singapour ou à Kuala Lumpur
en Malaisie. En attendant qu’elle reçoive les A380 les plus luxueux du
monde, il est prévu qu’elle opèrera dans un premier temps avec une
flotte de 11 A320.

Rappelons qu’outre cette nouvelle compagnie « Premium », Qanta
envisage de créer une compagnie low cost au Japon, Jetstar Japan, en
partenariat avec Japan Airlines et Mitsubishi. Dotée d’une flotte de
3A320 pour commencer, elle verra le jour en 2012.

Au total Qantas a prévu pour ses divers projets
l’acquisition de plus d’une centaine d’avions A320. 28 à 32 seront de
facture standard, les autres dans la version remotorisée A320NEO -plus
190 en option. Elle attend aussi 12 A380, la livraison des six derniers
étant repoussée à 2019.
http://www.air-journal.fr/2011-08-26-qantas-veut-les-a380-les-plus-luxueux-pour-sa-nouvelle-filiale-premium-535071.html

"Our first objective with Dallas is to pad it out to daily services with a big plane. Why would you then drop back to a 787 in that case?"

Mr Strambi said the route may be served longer term by an Airbus A380 capable of making the 13,804-kilometre journey across the Pacific.

Qantas started the Sydney to Dallas/Fort Worth route in May this year, flying four times a week to its Oneworld Alliance partner American Airlines' biggest hub city.

The airline says it is the longest operation of a 747 aircraft in the world and the third-longest flight, behind Singapore Airlines' direct service from the city-state to Los Angeles (14,114 kilometres) and Newark (15,345 kilometres).

Due to headwinds travelling west back to Australia, the flight back to Sydney stops via Brisbane.

There have been a number of diversions during the first few months of operation, with the Dallas/Fort Worth to Brisbane route forced to make stops in Auckland, New Caledonia and Fiji due to stronger-than-expected headwinds or bad weather.

Mr Strambi said the airline was learning a lot about the new route and adjusting how it was flown.

"We are getting more accurate in our load planning and therefore more efficient and more able to achieve better returns," Mr Strambi said.

Qantas expected to receive its first Boeing 787-9 some time in 2014 or 2015, Mr Strambi said

Admin a écrit:Les 787-8 de Qantas seront configurés environ à 275 PAx