Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) has confirmed it will begin basing B787-9s out of Brisbane International with effect from mid-2018 onwards. The Australian carrier said in a press release on August 29 that a total of four B787-9s would be deployed to the Queensland hub by late 2018 thus creating 470 new jobs and opening up new potential international routes.
“Queensland is the birthplace of Qantas and it’s fitting that we will base four of our Dreamliners in the state," Group CEO Alan Joyce said. "We’ve said that initially our Dreamliners will replace the routes that our older B747-400 fly but there are also new destinations we are looking at given the capability of the aircraft. A range of exciting options is on the table that will help drive tourism to the state and we look forward to making that decision in coming months."
From Brisbane, Joyce said the B787-9 would be able to operate non-stop services to Asia as well as points across the Paacific such as Seattle Tacoma International, Chicago O'Hare, and San Francisco in the United States, and Vancouver International in Canada.
In December 2016, Qantas announced that its first four B787-9s would be based at Melbourne Tullamarine where they would be used to launch non-stop Melbourne – Los Angeles flights from December 2017 and Melbourne – London Heathrow (via Perth International) from March 2018.
At present, Qantas has a total of eight B787-9s on order from Boeing (BOE, Washington National). Following the first jet's delivery in October 2017, it will first be deployed on domestic Australian services for crew-training purposes before making its international debut with Melbourne – Los Angeles International on December 15, 2017.
