Qantas announces fleet growth

On 22 February 2023, the Qantas Group announced its intention to acquire various additional aircraft for the airlines in the group. The expansion of the fleets comes as the airline is experiencing an increase in both passenger- and cargo demand.

For Qantas, the board has approved the conversion of purchasing rights for nine Airbus A220-300s into firm orders. The additional A220s are scheduled to be delivered in the fiscal years FY26 and FY27. With this conversion, Qantas has now firm orders for 29 A220-300s and 85 remaining purchase options.

Qantas Freight will be supplied with three more A321P2Fs, with a planned delivery in FY25 and FY26. The carrier will use the aircraft to replace its final three B737-300Fs and single B737-400F. Currently, the carrier is already operating three A321P2Fs and will take delivery of one A330-200P2F to replace its single B767-300F. It also uses three BAe146-300QTs operated by National Jet Express.

The operations of QantasLink will be expanded with twelve additional wet-leased Embraer ERJ190s from Alliance Airlines. QantasLink will also add five A319/A320s which will be operated by Network Aviation in Western Australia. These are expected for delivery in FY24. Today, QantasLink is flying fourteen wet-leased ERJ190s from Alliance Airlines and eleven A320s flown by Network Aviation.

For its Jetstar Asia-subsidiary in Singapore, the plan is to add two additional Airbus A320s with delivery planned for the middle of this year. This will bring the fleet to a total of nine A320s.

Illustration by Airbus.