Airbus Updates No.4513

Qantas takes delivery of 1st Airbus A321XLR

Qantas has officially taken delivery of its first Airbus A321XLR. The aircraft, VH-OGA (12323) was handed-over at the manufacturer's plant at Hamburg-Finkenwerder and departed on 30 June 2025.

The delivery flight is setting records as it will be flying non-stop from Hamburg to Bangkok, covering a distance of 9,600 km. It's the longest flight so far for Airbus' newest variant of the A321neo. From Bangkok, it will fly non-stop to Sydney, a distance of 7,400 km. It's expected to arrive there on 2 July 2025.

It's the first of 28 A321XLRs Qantas is planning to welcome into its fleet. The long-range Airbus will be used to gradually replace older Boeing B737-800s in the fleet. It will be predominantly used for domestic and short-haul international flights.

Qantas is currently operating a fleet of 75 B737-800s, so the planned 28 A321XLRs won't cover that. The airline group, however, has open remaining orders for around 100 A320neo-family aircraft. These will be allocated to Jetstar or Qantas closer to the planned production slot based on the airlines' need.

Airbus Updates No.4004

 

Solomon Airlines in talks for second A320

Solomons - Solomon Airlines Airbus A320-200© Solomons - Solomon Airlines

16.05.2023 - 03:20 UTC

Solomons - Solomon Airlines (IE, Honiara) is looking to secure a second A320-200 to capitalise on demand for travel to Honiara for the 17th Pacific Games later this year. Solomon Airlines CEO Gus Kraus told the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Commission that a letter of intent (LOI) had been signed with the lessor and lease negotiations were expected to commence shortly.

If the lease proceeds, it will provide the state-owned carrier with its second jet aircraft and offer some much needed capacity when the other aircraft goes out of service. Kraus did not provide specific information on the incoming aircraft, other than saying it was former Jetstar Airways (JQ, Melbourne Tullamarine) Airbus stock, and that he hoped to have it by July or August.

“The purchase will see us having a new modern airplane that is under 10 years old," he said. "That’s the newest airplane we’ve got." Solomon Airlines currently operates a fleet of five aircraft, including one 18.04 year-old A320-200, one 31.79 year-old DHC-8-100, and three DHC-6-300s variously aged 47.08 years, 47.49 years, and 53.32 years old.

Kraus says aside from providing extra capacity over the Pacific Games period, the additional jet would be used on charters, including seasonal work charters, and flights to Port Moresby and Kiribati. "There's plenty of work ahead," he said. "In the longer term, we want to talk with Tonga and Samoa if they have a need for airline services as they don’t have national airlines."

According to ch-aviation fleets advanced data, Jetstar has exited three A320-200s since the start of 2022, with the two most recent transferring to Network Aviation (NWK, Perth International), a closed charter specialist airline also owned by Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith). However, ch-aviation has confirmed that the aircraft under negotiation is 2-HVFN (msn 5566). Jetstar returned the plane, then registered as VH-VFN, to BOC Aviation in October 2022. The aircraft is 10.16 years old and is currently at Singapore Seletar for maintenance. Representatives from Solomon Airlines plan to inspect the aircraft next week.

Meanwhile, Kraus also said having its sole A320-200, H4-SIB (msn 2445), out of service multiple times this year had proven a costly exercise for the small state-owned airline. He said the aircraft was out of service for ten days in January, three days in March, and fourteen days in late April/early May. The beneficiary was Nauru Airlines (ON, Nauru) which billed Solomon Airlines SBD4.5 million Solomon Islands dollars (USD540,000) for charter flights.

"All revenues made from selling tickets, we don’t keep because we must pay it out for the chartered flights," said Kraus. "This affects us in two ways; us paying another operator to provide our services, and paying the Airbus lease payments."

He confirmed the most recent out-of-service incident was due to a fuel contamination issue in the wing fuel tanks, which he says are checked every time the aircraft lands. "The recent contamination was found in the wing tanks. This saw our maintenance controller in Brisbane making the decision for us to ground the plane."

Kraus also said that H4-SIB would be out of service for two weeks from May 22 for scheduled maintenance at Melbourne Tullamarine. During this time, Nauru Airlines will operate many of Solomon Airlines' scheduled A320 flights but Kraus said he was also looking for another short term wet-lessor to cover what Nauru Airlines could not.

AIRBUS UPDATES NO.3893

 

Photo Credit: Jetstar

Santa delivers two A321neo’s to Jetstar for Christmas

• 
  

Christmas has seen the delivery of two new Airbus A321neo aircraft for Australian low-cost carrier Jetstar.

The two A321neos or specifically the A321-251NXs with the registration of VH-OFP and VH-OFQ landed at Perth on Christmas eve.

VH-OFP landed in Perth at 10:58 PM and VH-OFQ landed at 11:08 PM respectively according to Flightradar24, with both then continuing to Melbourne afterwards for final delivery.

Both aircraft came in from Bangalore (BLR), departing from Hamburg on the 23rd of December as flight numbers: JQ8996 and JQ8998.

The two airliners are the ‘LR’ version or the Long Range of the Airbus A320 NEO family, which carries an extra duel in three additional centre tanks, which enables the aircraft to fly up to 4,000 nautical miles with 206 passengers. 

Airbus Updates No.3104

 

Jetstar moves A320s to Australia from Japan, Singapore

Jetstar Airways Airbus A320-200© Tis Meyer / PlanePics.org

18.03.2021 - 17:18 UTC

Qantas Group is planning to temporarily transfer up to ten A320-200s from its foreign joint ventures to its Australian fleet as the country's domestic market is able to support more capacity than other countries at this time, Chief Executive of low-cost unit Jetstar Airways (JQ, Melbourne Tullamarine) Gareth Evans said during a CAPA Live event.

"We’re looking to bring six of the Jetstar Japan (GK, Tokyo Narita) aircraft down to Australia for a temporary period, not permanently but for two to three years perhaps to provide some capacity for growth to Jetstar domestically and potentially to leverage into Western Australia as well," Evans said.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Jetstar Japan currently operates twenty-five Airbus narrowbodies, including twenty-four A320-200s and a single A321-200NX. The single A321neo was contractually delivered to the airline in December 2020 but remains in storage at Erfurt airport and was never ferried to Japan.

The A320s are 7.4 years old on average and are all dry-leased from a variety of lessors. Six aircraft are owned by Tokyo Century, which has a 16.7% stake in Jetstar Japan. The other shareholders of Jetstar Japan are JAL Group with a 50% stake and Qantas Group with a 33.3% stake.

Evans underlined that Jetstar remained committed to its Japanese joint venture but stressed that the Japanese domestic market was rebounding much more slowly than the Australian one. As such, the group could use the aircraft more efficiently in its home market for the time being.

The carrier told ch-aviation that the aircraft would first be ferried to Alice Springs before joining Jestar Airways' fleet. Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows that JA06JJ (msn 5281), JA12JJ (msn 5618), and JA18JJ (msn 5796) are currently parked at the Australian airport.

The six A320s due to be transferred from Jetstar Japan will join four aircraft moved from Jetstar Asia Airways (3K, Singapore Changi) to Australia. In mid-2020, the Singaporean LCC, which does not have a domestic market and relies exclusively on heavily curtailed international routes, announced that it would retire five out of its then eighteen A320-200s. Since then, three aircraft have been transferred to Qantas Group's regional carrier Network Aviation (NWK, Perth Int'l) and operate routes out of Perth Int'l under the QantasLink brand.

Both Jetstar and Jetstar Asia confirmed that the three A320s transferred to Network Aviation were a part of the transaction described by Evans. The identity of the fourth aircraft to be moved to Australia remains unclear.

The group sees significant potential in the Australian domestic market, which is poised to return to its pre-pandemic size, and may even exceed it, relatively quickly. The carrier is already back to 90% of its pre-COVID domestic capacity in Australia and 80% in New Zealand. Evans said the closure of rival LCC Tigerair Australia opened new market opportunities. The airline has not been deterred by the entry of Rex - Regional Express into the mainline market.

"We’re not going to overheat the market, but we’ve got a right to grow and we’re going to do that flexibly using aircraft from elsewhere within our group," Evans said.

Jetstar Airways plans to add its first A321-200NX(LR)s in 2022 or 2023. The aircraft will be used on medium-haul routes served before the pandemic by the carrier's B787-8s, including routes to Denpasar. The carrier has a total of twenty-seven A321-200NX(LR)s on order from Airbus, as well as thirty-six A321-200NX(XLR)s and forty-five A320-200Ns. Its current fleet comprises fifty A320-200s, eight A321-200s, and eleven B787-8s.

Evans said the group remained committed to adding some A321-200NX(LR)s to its Japanese unit, although the timing was still unclear at this point.

Airbus Updates No.2176

Jetstar to add A321neo in Australia and Japan in mid-2020

Illustration of Jetstar Airways Airbus A321-200N © Jetstar Airways

11.06.2019 - 10:06 UTC

Jetstar Airways (JQ, Melbourne Tullamarine) and Jetstar Japan (GK, Tokyo Narita) will start adding A321-200neo to their fleets in mid-2020, Jetstar Group CEO Gareth Evans told the media during the IATA AGM in Seoul.

"The A321neo will be arriving both in Australia and Japan from the middle of 2020. Initially, we have three aircraft coming to Japan and eighteen to Australia over the next two years from mid-2020," Evans said.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Qantas Group currently has 99 A320neo family aircraft on order with Airbus, including forty-five A320-200neo, thirty-six A321neo, and eighteen A321neo(LR)s.

All of the A320neo Family aircraft ordered by Qantas Group will go to various Jetstar units as a replacement of their current fleets and for growth. Evans pointed out that Singapore's Jetstar Asia Airways (3K, Singapore Changi) and Viet Nam's Jetstar Pacific (BL, Ho Chi Minh City) could also get A321neo down the line, although the initial plan through 2022 foresees deliveries only to the Australian and the Japanese units.

Evans said that the A321neo will allow the Jetstar airlines to expand their network.

"They will be game-changers for Jetstar the way the B787-9s were for Qantas. The extra range they have means they can fly domestically during the day and internationally during the night, thus freeing up B787-8s which we can use to expand our international network like to South Korea," Evans said.

He added that the LCC group is evaluating the proposed A321neo(XLR).

"This aircraft could work on markets such as Cairns-Japan. We have a fairly big B787 operation from Cairns to Tokyo Narita and Osaka Kansai and with the A321neo(XLR) we would potentially be able to open more points in Japan," Evans said.

He added that Jetstar Group was happy with its current business in Japan and did not plan to invest in ZIPAIR Tokyo (Tokyo Narita), a planned long-haul low-cost subsidiary of JAL - Japan Airlines (JL, Tokyo Haneda). Jetstar Japan is a joint-venture between Jetstar and JAL.

"We had discussions with JAL. We want to continue to build the capabilities of Jetstar Japan. We are absolutely happy to support JAL, there are certain elements we will have to harmonise with ZIPAIR but we didn't want to get distracted by setting up a new long-haul low-cost airline in a country far away," Evans said.

Jetstar Airways currently operates fifty-two A320-200s, eight A321-200s, and eleven B787-8. It also wet-leases five Dash 8-300s from Eastern Australia Airlines. Jetstar Japan operates twenty-five A320s. Jetstar Asia operates eighteen A320s and Jetstar Pacific fifteen A320s and two A321s.

Qantas itself has still not decided on the replacement strategy for its seventy-five B737-800s. CEO Alan Joyce said that the airline will start talks with Airbus and Boeing next year after it makes a go or no-go decision regarding the ultra-long-haul Project Sunrise. He mentioned that Qantas was interested in Boeing's NMA type but he also did not disqualify the B737 MAX.

Airbus Updates No.1774

Australia's Jetstar to add A321neo(LR) from mid-2020

Airbus Airbus A321-200neo© Airbus

22FEB2018

Jetstar Airways (JQ, Melbourne Tullamarine) has converted a significant proportion of its order with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) for ninety-nine A320neo into A321neo(LR). According to QantasGroup chief executive Alan Joyce, the first eighteen aircraft will deliver from mid-2020 through to the end of 2022. The order had previously constituted fifty-four A320neo and forty-five A321neo, with deliveries to have begun in 2019.

Operationally, the budget carrier will exploit the LR's range to replace the B787-8 on select longhaul routes such as Sydney Kingsford Smith and Melbourne Tullamarine to Denpasar, Indonesia. As such, the first four aircraft of the type will be used to add capacity on these routes while allowing the B787-8s to be redeployed to other leisure destinations such as Vietnam, China, Thailand, and Hawaii.

Qantas Group retains flexibility with the sequencing of the rest of its A320neo Family order which is more or less an even split between the 186-seater A320neo and 232-seater A321neo(LR). The aircraft will be used primarily for fleet renewal, i.e. to replace older A320ceo, but with scope to allow for growth depending on market conditions.

Airbus Updates No.459

Qantas Completes Order For 110 Airbus Jets

October 6, 2011

Airbus A320 in Qantas unit Jetstar livery.

Australian airline Qantas said on Thursday that it had agreed an order for 110 single-aisle Airbus planes following a commitment for the aircraft signed in August.
The carrier announced a firm order for 78 Airbus next generation A320neo jets, along with 32 A320s, adding that it will decide on which engine to use with the planes at a later date.