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Fifth Qantas Boeing 787-9 arrives

written by australianaviation.com.au | July 2, 2018

VH=ZNE arrived in Melbourne on Sunday evening. (Victor Pody)

Qantas has taken delivery of its fifth Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, with the factory-fresh aircraft touching down in Melbourne on Sunday evening.

Registered VH-ZNE, Qantas says the aircraft has been named Skippy, joining VH-ZNA Great Southern Land, VH-ZNB Waltzing Matilda, VH-ZNC Quokka and VH-ZND Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

VH-ZNE departed Paine Field, adjacent to Boeing’s Everett factory and widebody aircraft delivery centre, a little after 1030am local time on Saturday, landing at Melbourne Airport a little after 7pm on Sunday following a 15h 29m nonstop trans-Pacific crossing.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkqp86FndWZ/?hl=en

Qantas now holds firm orders for 14 787-9s after it exercised options for an additional six aircraft in May, which will allow it to withdraw the Boeing 747-400 from service in 2020.

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The four 787-9s delivered to date are allowing Qantas to operate a Los Angeles-Melbourne-Perth-London Heathrow rotation.

The delivery of VH-ZNE and three further 787-9s before the end of the year will allow Qantas to base four aircraft in Brisbane and to replace 747-operated services between Brisbane and Los Angeles, as well as between Los Angeles and New York JFK.

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Comments (21)

  • Craigy

    says:

    VH-ZNF is currently on the production line so guessing number 6 will be ready in 3 weeks time.

  • T.Carroll

    says:

    Not impressed…travelled to London on the dreamlibrr, 17 hours wasn’t a problem but the uncomfortable seats were. Returned in the A380, for comfort the A380 won hands down.

  • Peter

    says:

    They got a joey from Sydney to appear in a plane cockpit in Melbourne? Hope it got QFF points and didn’t have to fly in the hold…

  • Eric

    says:

    Economy configuration is a nightmare, very narrow seats, the a350 is vastly superior in economy .

  • Neil Sleeman

    says:

    Flew London/Perth a couple of weeks ago (economy) bit cramped but tolerable due to having a spare seat next to me.
    Flying back next week with no apprehension but hopefully there’ll be another spare seat next to me.
    In future I’ll be flying economy plus just for that little bit of extra comfort.

  • James

    says:

    @ Peter

    It says the photo was taken in the sim. Which is in Sydney.

  • kjr

    says:

    This is NOT a good news story for cattle class passengers!!!

  • Lechuga

    says:

    Sad to know that in VH-ZNF is a month or 2 away and that another 747 is about to hit the boneyard.

    On top of that, the 747s haven’t really been replaced at all. Plenty of routes to cover, not enough cattle to cover it, or if there is the cattle there’s not enough capacity or slots to cover it.

    Seems a bit of a mess at the moment.

  • Jonathon

    says:

    Umm, OOPS… Anyone notice the embarrassing typo on the latest plane? It says SHIPPY, not SKIPPY… Oh dear, back to the States. 🙂

    • Eric

      says:

      Glad I saw your comment. Thought I was going mad…

  • Stephen Smith

    says:

    If you look very closely at the picture you will see that it is definitely a K not a H!

    • Glenn

      says:

      Not the best font to use.

  • Bob

    says:

    My wife and I flew Perth London return in economy recently and loved the flight and the aircraft.

    • Paddy

      says:

      Love the aircraft, although it will be sad to see the end of the QF B747aircraft.

  • Bob

    says:

    My wife and I flew Perth London return in economy recently, loved the flight and the aircraft.

  • Durn

    says:

    Enjoyed a premium economy upgrade on the A 380 HKG-SYD on my way home to BNE rather than using an uncomfortable economy seat on the A330 HKG-BNE. Great until we had to do a transfer to a domestic service at Sydney International where there were more passengers than the outdated facility could handle, the queue stretched back into the International terminal. Missed the 8.30 flight plus the next three and finally placed on an 1100 service that was chockers. As a result missed my connections out of Brisbane. This is a problem that Qantas urgently to address.

  • Craig Willis

    says:

    I thought Shippy as well but then zoomed in…..phew !!

  • Clint

    says:

    Jeez some people complain over first world problems… Think of those who are less fortunate and can’t afford to enjoy such luxuries… Just another token ‘Flying Kangaroo’…

  • Ian Deans

    says:

    Nice aircraft, crappy crowded economy cabin….9 across…give us the old A330 8 across any time.

  • TimC69

    says:

    Just got home flying Etihad 777-300 with 10 across is economy! I’ll never complain about Qantas again- fly regularly for work domestically with Qantas- as the Qantas product is far superior to anything I had flown in Europe.
    PS: avoid Austrian Airlines at all cost!

  • Michael Sheridan

    says:

    How wide is the business class seat on 787-9?

    Thanks

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