Qantas Airways will let 1 of its 15 options over Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner jets lapse in February and will make a decision on some others in a "few more months", its CE said Monday. The airline is looking to expand international flying but wants to be judicious about capital spending as it boosts returns to investors as part of a successful turnaround programme. CE Alan Joyce said the airline was examining whether to take more 787s than the 8 already ordered. At the same time it was considering a business case for its budget arm Jetstar to take Airbus' A321neos, he said. "We balance up what are the relative business cases between Jetstar, between Qantas International, Qantas Domestic and Loyalty and figure out given our limited resource of capital what is the best business case to invest the capital in," he said. <br/>
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Qantas wants its aircraft of choice to be able to fly the anticipated nonstop services from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to London at a full passenger load, the airline’s CE Alan Joyce said. The airline has tasked both Airbus and Boeing to make aircraft available for the service it plans to introduce around 2022. So far the manufacturers have offer aircraft that can fly the 21-hour northbound sector, but not at a full passenger load. Boeing is pitching the 777-8X for the flights whereas Airbus is offering the A350-900ULR (ultra-long-range). Qantas is one of the airlines most interested in rebuilding an ultra-long-haul network introducing what will be the world’s third-longest route from Perth to London next month using Boeing 787-9s. The carrier is also studying a Melbourne-Dallas service, likely also based on the 787-9. <br/>
Emirates Engineering announced Monday an agreement with Qantas for aircraft maintenance, extending a commercial partnership already in place between Emirates airline and the Australian carrier. Under the terms of the deal, Emirates Engineering will strip and repaint 8 Qantas A380 aircraft starting March 2018 at the Emirates Aircraft Appearance Centre in Dubai. The agreement also covers the replacement of landing gears for 1 Qantas A380 aircraft by Emirates Engineering in Feb 2018. Mohammad Jaffar Nasser, senior VP of engineering maintenance at Emirates Engineering, said the company is aiming to promote Dubai as a centre for Airbus A380 maintenance. <br/>
Heathrow terminals should be run by companies other than the airport operator, IAG said Monday, continuing its long-standing call for lower costs at the airport. IAG said in a submission to the CAA that bringing in third parties such as airlines themselves to run parts of Heathrow would create competition and keep down costs. In Oct 2016 Britain backed an expansion of the London hub airport that will cost more than GBP14b. The green light followed decades of govt indecision, but airlines including BA want the cost of a new runway to be minimised to keep a lid on their fares. BA is Heathrow's biggest airline customer, accounting for more than 50% of its take-off and landing slots, and IAG has previously said it would look to expand elsewhere if a new runway at Heathrow resulted in higher fees. <br/>
American Airlines pilots are upset about the company's profit-sharing arrangements for 2018. And they're getting more upset by the day, it would appear. Emboldened perhaps by their victory in getting considerable additional compensation in return for helping management deal with an urgent pilot shortage caused by a computer glitch in the lead-up to the Christmas holidays, American Airlines pilots are pushing hard to get management to reconsider what AA pilots argue is the company's paltry 2018 profit sharing payout — at least relative to United Airlines and Delta Airlines. All three carriers recently announced internally their 2018 profit-sharing payout plans for eligible employees — though they have not been talking much about the details publicly. <br/>