Qantas Airways picked Airbus over Boeing as the preferred supplier for jets capable of the world's longest commercial flights from Sydney to London, dealing the US planemaker its latest setback this year. The choice of up to 12 A350-1000 planes fitted with an extra fuel tank for flights of up to 21 hours cements Airbus as the leader in ultra-long haul flying globally at a time when Boeing is battling delays on its rival 777X program and a broader corporate crisis with its 737 MAX. The Qantas flights would begin in the first half of 2023. A final decision on an order is expected in March, the airline said Friday. Qantas CE Alan Joyce said the airline "had a lot of confidence" in the market for non-stop services from Sydney to London and to New York based on 2 years of flying non-stop from Perth to London. <br/>
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Qantas pilots say they won't be pressured into accepting a wage deal for non-stop flights to London and New York, which is the last stumbling block for CE Alan Joyce after the airline settled on Airbus' A350-1000 as its preferred ultra-long-haul aircraft. Joyce said Friday the Civil Aviation Safety Authority had indicated it would approve the flights of up to 21 hours, which left extracting "efficiency gains" from pilots as the last obstacle to launching the longest commercial flights in aviation history. Qantas intended to make a decision on whether to go ahead with its so-called "Project Sunrise" by the end of 2019 but has pushed that deadline back to March 2020 as it negotiates with pilots over pay and conditions. <br/>
Airbus has yet to disclose detailed final specifications of the adapted A350-1000 which will be developed for Qantas’s Project Sunrise ultra-long-haul flights. The provisional selection of the twinjet by Qantas is still to evolve into a firm order, owing to continuing negotiations over various aspects of the envisioned New York-Sydney and London-Sydney flights. But the airframer stresses that the proposed aircraft, while “based on” the -1000, is “not a ULR”, suggesting that it is not intending to produce an equivalent modified version of the -1000 in the same way that it developed the A350-900ULR for ultra-long-haul services. Airbus has not confirmed the range or final maximum take-off weight of the Sunrise aircraft, but has been putting forward a 319t version of the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered jet. <br/>
A Qantas Airbus A330-200 returned to Sydney shortly after it took off, after 1 of the 3 hydraulic systems on board suffered a leak. The airline said that it is now cooperating with the ATSB in investigations into the incident, which left at least 2 passengers injured. It is also in communication with Airbus about the incident, and will launch its own investigations. Qantas says the flight crew noticed an alert for the hydraulic system 20 minutes after take-off and elected to return to Sydney. It stressed that “no emergency was declared”. Once the aircraft was back on the gate "there were reports of a thick haze in the cabin, likely caused by hydraulic fluid entering the air conditioning unit,” said the carrier, adding that there was no fire, even as some passengers may have thought it to be smoke. <br/>
Finnair is starting its next big round of investments: as much as E4b (US$4.5b) on modernising and expanding its narrow-body fleet of aircraft to fly between European cities. The investment comes on top of E2b spent over the past 5 years on transforming Finnair’s long-haul fleet to boost fuel efficiency, and in the process cut costs and emissions. CE Topi Manner says the extra spending will be covered by the company’s strong cash flow. Finnair is currently mostly an Airbus operator and recently announced plans to expand the fleet by about one-fifth to 100 planes. Finnair's operating cash flow has more than doubled since 2016. Manner says Finnair will generate more cash as it increasingly relies on digital technology and automation. He also said fuel efficiency is high on the airline’s list of priorities. <br/>