Jetstar’s 11th 787-8 enters service

Jetstar Boeing 787-8 VH-VKL at Melbourne Airport on September 13. (Victor Pody)

Jetstar’s transition to an all Boeing 787-8 long-haul fleet is almost complete after the low-cost carrier’s 11th and final Dreamliner on firm order entered revenue service over the weekend.

The aircraft, VH-VKL, operated its first commercial flight on Saturday as JQ37 from Sydney to Bali, with the 787 departing Kingsford Smith at 1820 local time.

The entry of into service of VH-VKL will shortly be followed by the withdrawal of VH-EBE, which is the last Airbus A330-200 remaining in the Jetstar fleet.

The Airline Route website reported earlier in September Jetstar’s final A330 service will be a Melbourne-Honolulu-Brisbane rotation, with JQ6 scheduled to touch down in the Queensland capital at 1625 on September 25.

The A330-200 will then be prepared to enter service with Jetstar parent Qantas.

VH-VKL was the last 787-8 for Jetstar on firm order. Jetstar operates the 787 to Asia (Bali, Bangkok, Osaka Kansai, Phuket, Singapore and Tokyo Narita) and Honolulu from various points in Australia.

Qantas announced at its 2014/15 full year results that deferred orders for three more 787-8s that were due to be delivered to Jetstar had been converted to 787-9s for Qantas.

While there are no more firm 787 orders for Jetstar, the Qantas Group does have 15 787 remaining options, which have firm delivery dates and a fixed price, and 30 remaining 787 purchase rights, which have a fixed price but no firm delivery date, that can be exercised between now and 2024/25 that could be allocated to either Qantas or Jetstar.

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Comments (5)

Rodney Marinkovic

September 14, 2015 at 2:25 pm

Jetstar obviously cam to be serios player in LCC aviation business. Not only in Australia,
but on Pacific too. QANTAS has to be very proud with daughter company. JerStar!✈

Neil Hansford

September 14, 2015 at 3:21 pm

The Jetstar experience with 11 787-8 aircraft will make the introduction of the 787-9 into the Qantas mainline fleet ever so much smoother.
The tragedy is that management decisions don’t have the 787-9 introduction to Qantas following seamlessly behind the last 787-8 to be delivered to JQ.
Would have been lovely to see 747-400’s going to the desert quicker and QF getting immediate fuel and operational benefits on top of a much better pax experience.

Peter

September 14, 2015 at 4:46 pm

Regarding Qantas 787-9 order let us hope that QF make the bold decision of going 8 abreast in economy. The 9 abreast “squeeze” is OK with Jetstar as the routes flown are not as long & the passenger is compensated with much lower fares. I commend the Japanese carriers for. their decision to go “8” & I am sure once the word gets around they will benefit with increased market share on B787 routes. Furthermore Qantas intend to use their 787’s on ultra long haul sectors & I am sure its customers will accept paying a small premium in return for a much better in flight experience.