Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) CEO Alan Joyce will meet Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury in Europe this week to firm up delivery timelines for recent A350-1000, A321-200NY(XLR), and A220-300 orders. Qantas placed firm orders for the aircraft in May 2022. The A350s are providing the foundation Project Sunrise fleet while the narrowbody aircraft are part of a domestic fleet renewal program. The first aircraft deliveries are due in 2023 and Joyce wants certainty that this will happen.

According to Bloomberg, Joyce's meeting with Faury this week is an annual "progress report." While confirming that he is happy with progress so far and that there has been no slippage on delivery dates, "I think every airline would be after certainty on the time-frames," Joyce said. "If deliveries come a month later it doesn’t make much difference, if it’s six months or a year, that can make a big difference."

In May, Qantas ordered twenty A321neo(XLR)s and twenty A220-300s with options for a further 94 aircraft. Dubbed Project Winton, these aircraft are due to start arriving in late 2023 and will begin the B737-800 and B717-200 fleet replacement process.

Also ordered were 12 of the A350-1000s which are due to start operating Project Sunrise flights from late 2025. These aircraft are coming with additional fuel tanks, which still need to be certified and this presents as a possible delivery stumbling block. Airbus has recently cut its 2022 delivery target and has lowered its monthly production rate estimate. The most recent Airbus delivery data reveals the aircraft manufacturer had a backlog of 6,699 A320/A220 type aircraft and 424 A350s as of August 31, 2022.

Meanwhile, Qantas has also pushed back against claims it has dragged its heels on placing new aircraft orders. Appearing before an Australian government Senate inquiry into an industrial relations bill this week, corporate affairs head Andrew McGuinnes defended claims that the airline group has underinvested in new aircraft.

"We did pause deliveries of new aircraft during the pandemic, for fairly obvious reasons. We got our first new A321-200neo in August [for Jetstar Airways (JQ, Melbourne Tullamarine)]. There’s another one due in November. We have the A220s arriving from late next year. We have the A321XLR arriving from late 2024. There’s a huge amount of investment. We currently have the largest fleet deal in Australian aviation history, so I don’t think we can say that we’re not reinvesting in the fleet. But naturally, there’s a lag and we kind of lost three years there. We would’ve had newer aircraft sooner were it not for that."