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| QANTASLINK AIRBUS A220-300 VH-X4A (MSN 55253) |
It was scheduled twice before to come here but the trips were cancelled.
The A220 with the registration of VH-X4A touched down on runway 16L at Sydney Airport at 12:06pm on Wednesday the 20th of December after flying via Vancouver, Honolulu, and Nadi.
It had left Montreal on the 16th of December having undergone two test flights following its exit from the Airbus paint shop last month.
As the first A220 to be operated in Australia, the aircraft is flying the east coast doing a show and tell / regulatory checks and crew familiarisation flights before it starts flying the Melbourne-Canberra route this month. The special paint scheme is a beautiful representation of Pitjantjatjara artist Maringka Baker's painting Minyma Kutjara Tjukurpa (Two Sisters Creation Story).
Qantas has 29 of the 137-seat A220s on order to replace the existing QantasLink 717 fleet. The A220s will mostly connect smaller capital cities like Canberra and Hobart with larger cities like Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. The A220 has almost double the range of the 717 at over 6,000 kilometres, meaning it can fly between any city in Australia.
Qantas is expecting its next A220 any day now and is scheduled to take delivery of five more A220s between January 2024 and mid-2025, the remainder will be delivered through to the end of 2026.
In the past 12 months, Qantas has welcomed 13 new aircraft, including nine Airbus A321LRs for Jetstar and three Boeing 787 Dreamliners for the mainline fleet.
Today is its first time in Brisbane, flying in from Canberra as QJE6215, it landed on runway 19L at 9.55am local. It parked at the Qantas domestic terminal for three and a half hours, before departing back to Canberra at 1.25pm.
It had left Montreal on the 16th of December having undergone two test flights following its exit from the Airbus paint shop last month.
As the first A220 to be operated in Australia, the aircraft is flying the east coast doing a show and tell / regulatory checks and crew familiarisation flights before it starts flying the Melbourne-Canberra route this month. The special paint scheme is a beautiful representation of Pitjantjatjara artist Maringka Baker's painting Minyma Kutjara Tjukurpa (Two Sisters Creation Story).
Qantas has 29 of the 137-seat A220s on order to replace the existing QantasLink 717 fleet. The A220s will mostly connect smaller capital cities like Canberra and Hobart with larger cities like Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. The A220 has almost double the range of the 717 at over 6,000 kilometres, meaning it can fly between any city in Australia.
Qantas is expecting its next A220 any day now and is scheduled to take delivery of five more A220s between January 2024 and mid-2025, the remainder will be delivered through to the end of 2026.
In the past 12 months, Qantas has welcomed 13 new aircraft, including nine Airbus A321LRs for Jetstar and three Boeing 787 Dreamliners for the mainline fleet.
Today is its first time in Brisbane, flying in from Canberra as QJE6215, it landed on runway 19L at 9.55am local. It parked at the Qantas domestic terminal for three and a half hours, before departing back to Canberra at 1.25pm.
All photos were taken by my wife Judy.
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