Qantas ‘close’ to getting long-haul plane, says Boeing

Boeing is “pretty close” to making a plane Qantas can fly non-stop from Australia’s east coast to New York or London.

An Emirates Boeing 777 aircraft takes off over an Airbus A330-300. Pic: AFP

American aerospace giant Boeing is “pretty...close” to making a plane that can meet Qantas’s ambitions to fly non-stop from Australia’s eastern capitals to New York or London, senior figures at the aircraft manufacturer say.

In a briefing today, Boeing vice president and general manager of the 777X program, Eric Lindblad, said that using the 777-8 variant “would be our proposal for that”.

Under its “Project Sunrise”, Qantas has pushed the world’s aircraft manufacturing titans, Airbus and Boeing, to extend the range of their next generation of long-haul planes to allow flights between Australia’s eastern seaboard and cities as far flung as New York and London, as well as possibly Paris, Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro, from 2022.

The choice for Qantas for the super-long-haul, non-stop plan is viewed as being between the Boeing777X and the Airbus A350ULR.

“Today we have more work to do to make that right aeroplane I think given the Qantas requirements,” Mr Lindblad said.

“We also believe that it’s pretty...close.”

Boeing vice president and 777X chief project engineer Michael Teal said the aircraft maker was looking at “what knobs we can twist” to develop the plane for Qantas.

“If you look at the exact aeroplane we have on paper today, which is not a firm configuration, it falls short of all their desires, but exceeds many of their desires,” Mr Teal said.

“What we’re looking at today is what knobs we can twist ... we are highly motivated to participate with them on Project Sunrise and make sure that the aircraft offering we have will meet their needs”.

Mr Teal said that detailed design on the 777-8 variant had started and expressed confidence the schedule for the program would meet with Qantas’s requirements.

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Last week, Airbus vice president Pacific, Ian Grant, said the market for ultra long-haul range was a “complicated beast” and “we definitely see that to be more of a premium market”.

Mr Grant also said that talks about the new route had focused on the A350-900ULR variant, which is what Singapore Airlines will use to fly directly from its Changi Airport hub to New York from next year.