Qantas launches quest for bright new face of domestic flights

Qantas will run a “beauty pageant” for the aircraft that will start ­replacing its older Boeing 737-800.

Alan Joyce with the new Qantas 787-9 Dreamliner at the Boeing factory in Seattle.

Qantas will run a beauty pageant “over the next couple of years” for the aircraft that will start ­replacing its older Boeing 737-800s, as it ­advances plans for an overhaul of its domestic fleet.

The carrier is eyeing the 737 MAX and the Airbus A320neo family, and chief executive Alan Joyce has flagged that something like Boeing’s possible “new mid-sized aeroplane” could be an ­option on the domestic network.

“We have to look at what the retirement of the 737s looks like,” Mr Joyce told The Australian from the Boeing facility in Seattle. A competition would be held “over the next couple of years”.

Aircraft orders are usually made several years before delivery as the life cycle of fleet is so long.

Qantas has 75 of the 737-800s, the backbone of the domestic passenger network that it began taking delivery of in 2002. The ­average age of the fleet as of last December was 8.7 years, the carrier has told the ASX.

The airline has been putting the older 737-400s out to pasture for several years, and the last of its Boeing 767 fleet, popular for zipping between Sydney and Melbourne, were retired in 2014. Older planes can require more maintenance and don’t have the fuel efficiency of new aircraft.

Qantas has ordered 99 of the A320neo (new engine option) family that are probably destined for its budget subsidiary, Jetstar.

Mr Joyce told the media that “we are talking to Boeing and Airbus and the other manufacturers about what we think we need for the domestic market”.

Boeing has been working on the concept of a plane that would be positioned between the bigger long-haul Dreamliner and the narrow-body 737s that are popular domestically in Australia, ­although it is thought the company is some way away from a decision on whether to proceed with the idea.

Qantas took delivery of the first of eight Dreamliners this week for its long-haul plans.

Mr Joyce said there was a gap in aircraft size in the market “and we think there’s a logical space for an aircraft there in the longer term”. It would be looking at “whether this new aircraft potentially could fill the gap”.

The interest Qantas has in the concept is for “transcontinental Australia and servicing markets where slots start to become an issue”, as well as potentially on Asia routes.

“As Sydney Airport and a lot of the domestic airports are becoming full, making better use of the slots with bigger aircraft is something that could be very desirable … so this could be an opportunity.”

He said the carrier could “continue to grow by just making better use of those slots”.