Qantas has reported an Underlying Profit Before Tax of $1,401 million for the 12 months ended 30 June 2017 – the second highest performance in the airline’s 97 year history. Qantas International will take delivery of two Dreamliner 787-9s next year, with all eight to join the fleet by 2019. A total of five older jumbos will be retired to make way for the new aircraft, while the remaining six extended range 747s are expected to remain until the early 2020s. The national carrier will base half of its Dreamliner fleet in Brisbane, opening the way for a range of new routes to major cities. Brisbane Airport Corporation is eyeing new direct international routes to add to the existing 30, with their targets including London, Amsterdam and Johannesburg.
By 2022, Qantas aims to be flying direct from Australia’s eastern states to New York and London, calling this ‘the last frontier of aviation.’ They have thrown out a challenge to Boeing and Airbus to increase the range of their next generation aircraft and make this possible – CEOs of both corporations have said they are up for this.
While Sydney and Melbourne airports are nearing capacity, Brisbane’s new $1.3 billion parallel runway will open in 2020 – on time and under budget – more than doubling its number of flights, which will continue to grow to over 360,000 per year by 2035. Its handling capacity will increase to 100 aircraft per hour, eclipsing ‘megahubs’ such as Hong Kong and Singapore. This will benefit international air cargo as well as passenger traffic. Work is also underway to maximise connections between the airport and the Port of Brisbane.
Developments at Brisbane airport, the biggest aviation project in Australia, will give it the best runway system in the country. The New Parallel Runway (NPR) will be 3.3km long, 60m wide, located 2km west of and parallel to the existing runway. It comprises more than 12km of taxiways, navigational aids, airfield infrastructure and hundreds of hectares of airfield landscaping. The finished Brisbane Airport upgrade is estimated to inject $13 billion into the economy by 2034 and support 88,000 jobs.
