iscover
The cabin update, to begin next year, will see the seat total remain at 342, though two premium economy seats will be swapped for economy seats, while business class will be upgraded with Collins Aerospace seats similar to the product on the refitted Dreamliners.
Operating as flight QF7301, Qantas Freight’s A321 freighter VH-XF5 touched down at WSI at around 2pm on Monday afternoon after a short hop from Sydney Kingsford Smith as part of a continuing testing program for the new airport.
The Flying Kangaroo saw 87.16 per cent of flights arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled time last month, just edging out Colombian carrier Avianca and Indian low-cost airline IndiGo, at 87 per cent and 86.64 per cent respectively.
BITRE data for May 2026 showed that 82.1 per cent of flights across participating airlines arrived on time and 82.8 per cent departed on time, with 1.5 per cent cancelled, compared to long-term averages of 80.5 per cent for arrivals, 81.6 per cent for departures, and 2.2 per cent for cancellations.
The carrier, which had planned to launch from Western Sydney International Airport (WSI) with a fleet of all Airbus A320neo family aircraft, has conceded it may need to consider older A320ceo (current engine option) planes as part of its fleet mix.
ZK-NZD flew out of Alice Springs on 28 June, having been in long-term storage since September while its Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines were repaired, and operated its first commercial flight since last August on 30 June as NZ8 from Auckland to San Francisco.
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