Qantas upgrades regional flights
The airline will phase out its Q200 and Q300 turboprop aircraft.
By David Flynn, June 25 2024
Qantas is steadily reshaping the fleet of its regional arm QantasLink, and we’re getting vibes of the old wedding tradition “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue“ – or at least red, in the case of the Flying Kangaroo.
Something old: well, how about old-ish..? That might be the 14 ‘mid-life' DeHavilland Dash 8-400 turboprop, also known as Q400s, which will be rolling into the QantasLink hangars from the end of this year.
This will swell the size of the QantasLink Q400 workhorse fleet to 45, and in turn allow the 19 smaller and older Q200 and Q300 turboprops aircraft to be gradually phased out of the fleet.
Qantas notes the Q400 is “more than 30% faster than the Q200 and Q300 aircraft, saving customers time travelling to and from regional destinations” while adding comfort and increasing reliability.
QantasLink turboprops carry more than 3.5 million passengers to more than 50 destinations around regional Australia every year,
“By consolidating our turboprops into a single fleet type, we’ll be able to further improve our reliability and provide a better recovery for our customers during disruptions as well as reducing complexity and cost for our operation,” suggests Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson.
Addressing reports that the Q400 isn't suitable for the runway at Lord Howe Island, unlike the smaller Q200 series, a spokesperson for Qantas said “We remain committed to ensuring that Lord Howe Island maintains an air service and we will be working with the community and Government on those options over the coming months.”
Review: QantasLink Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 economy class
Something new: of course, that’d have to be the Airbus A220.
Qantas has 29 of the modern jets on order, although only two have been delivered, with the third due to be delivered in the coming weeks.
As more A220s arrive they’ll edge out the noisier and less comfortable Boeing 717s on key inter-city routes: the forward schedule already pegs Melbourne-Hobart, Melbourne-Coffs Harbour and Melbourne-Launceston As A220 routes through to the end of this year.
Read: What it’s like to fly on the Qantas A220
Something borrowed: those Embraer E190s leased from Alliance Airlines continue to backfill the QantasLink fleet, at least until the full complement of A220s is in the hangars.
Qantas currently flies 26 of the nimble E-jets, with options for four more, and will rely on the E190 to launch Darwin-Singapore flights from March 2025 with 10 business class seats and 84 seats in economy.
Something blue: something red, obviously, but if we’re on the subject of colours, Hudson is determined to keep Qantas in the black while also funnelling more profit back into areas that make a difference for the traveller.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 Apr 2016
Total posts 60
Do we know where Qantas are picking up these second hand aircraft
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 May 2013
Total posts 383
My guess is Flybe, which recently went out of business. They had an extensive fleet of Q400s.
NZ Elite
03 Jul 2014
Total posts 110
With Qantas (again) confirming the Q200s are the be phased out, has there been any recent discussion on what to do about Lord Howe? I haven’t seen anything lately on runway extensions so unless QF are planning to let the route go in favour of another operator (which would be a pity) can we assume they’ll need to keep flying the old birds a fair bit longer?
25 Jul 2011
Total posts 18
Hmmm,
I wonder what that means for the flights to Lord Howe Island? Pretty sure it is only the 200's that can do that trip because of the short runway. There has been a lot of discussion out on LHI about extending the runway, but not sure anything is happening on that.
01 Dec 2012
Total posts 68
Transport for NSW announced an EOI process on 19 June for two regulated routes - Moree and Lord Howe Island. Current licences expire in March 2025. My guess is that Qantas will drop Lord Howe and leave it to others.
26 Sep 2023
Total posts 32
I imagine Rex will snap up MRZ, but there may be some commercial interest if Santos get their way up there. Can the Saab land at LDH?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
24 Feb 2022
Total posts 17
Typical regional service, Qantas replace a 40 year old plane, with a second hand 20 year old plane!!!
This is offensive for regional customers who have to pay extremely high fares!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
03 Jan 2013
Total posts 65
A bit of investment in the Q400 cabin experience wouldn’t go astray, perhaps a premium option on the first 3 or 4 rows…….?
26 Sep 2023
Total posts 32
The economics of the DH4 are famously good, so this makes sense, particularly because in Australia both the DH3 and DH4 have the same cabin crew requirements. The last advantage the DH3 aircraft had was their ability to service the non-security regional airports, which have a 50 pax cap, however I have seen the DH4 (limited to 50) increasingly often to places like OAG and GFF. Like others, I am still curious about what happens to LDH.
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