iscover
Qantas’ first A321XLR is slated to enter service in September after arriving in Australia this week.
Nicknamed ‘Great Ocean Road’, VH-OGA, which touched down in Sydney at 9:45am on Wednesday, flew for more than 20 hours from the Airbus factory in Hamburg, making only a single stop en route in Bangkok.
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
The plane was greeted by water cannons, as well as the lingering rain from this week’s “bomb cyclone”, which forced the cancellation of a planned media event. Qantas is the first airline in the Asia-Pacific, and fourth globally, to take delivery of the A321XLR.
“Our first A321XLR goes straight into its training program today, with our crew, engineers and ground services providers all coming up to speed with the aircraft over the coming weeks before it enters service on our domestic network,” a Qantas spokesperson said.
Qantas has a firm order for 28 A321XLRs, with options on more. The next-generation aircraft is five metres longer than the traditional 737-800s, with 197 seats split between 20 in business and 177 in economy, and also boasts a range 3,000km longer than its predecessor.
The first leg of the delivery flight stretched to 9,600 kilometres – the longest ever operated by a commercial airline for this aircraft type.
The arrival of the A321XLR is just one part of the carrier’s wider fleet renewal program, set to transform its operations over the next 20 years.
Aside from the A321XLR, Qantas will receive 29 of the smaller A220-300s to fly its domestic routes, while QantasLink WA subsidiary Network Aviation will look to source mid-life Embraer E190s to replace its decades-old Fokker 100s, and the QantasLink turboprop fleet is shifting to all Q400s.
Internationally, meanwhile, it will receive 12 new 787 Dreamliners and 12 Airbus A350s to replace the bulk of its ageing A330 fleet. It also has a separate order for 12 specially adapted A350-1000 jets to launch Project Sunrise direct flights from Europe and the US to Sydney and Melbourne.
The news comes after Australian Aviation reported how Qantas would acquire four midlife 737-800s by the end of the year to combat delays in the arrival of its new fleet of A321XLRs, as well as overhaul the cabins of more than 40 of its existing 737s.
