Qantas Airways plans to link with its 25% shareholder British Airways (BA) to develop a joint specification for the supply of new-generation regional jets. The UK carrier recently released a request for proposals for the supply of up to 100 regional jets (Flight International, 23-29 January).
Industry sources say the Australian component of the process will look ahead to identify suitable replacements for the 14 BAe 146s operated by National Jet Systems (NJS) for Qantas Airlink on regional, route development and freight services, and three more by wholly-owned Qantas subsidiary Southern Australia Airlines.
Qantas and NJS have been discussing the project since late last year. The sources believe the current arrangement between the two companies would remain unaltered by a fleet change. "We are very happy with the service delivered by NJS, and have no intention of changing the existing arrangement," says Qantas' group general manager of regional airlines and fleet planning, David Cox.
NJS, now owned by Cobham-based FRAviation, funds its acquisitions through guarantees provided by Qantas. It provides all flight deck and cabin crew, maintenance, training and operations services externally to Qantas.
Qantas chief executive designate Geoff Dixon had signalled that during 2001 Qantas would complete a review of the carrier's narrow-body and regional fleets. This will also include identifying replacements for its mainline narrow-body fleet, comprising 16 Boeing 737-300s and 22 -400s.
Some industry analysts believe Qantas' announcement that it would buy A330-200s and -300s and A380s from Airbus in preference to Boeing 747s and 777s, has placed Airbus in a strong position to sell its A320/A321.
Bombardier, Embraer, and Fairchild Dornier were strongly represented at the show. The manufacturers are all involved in the BA competition offering aircraft seating between 70 and 110 passengers. BAE Systems with its RJ-X is also a contender for a competition which might see aircraft for the Qantas requirement rolled into a joint order between the two airline partners.
Source: Flight International
