Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce has suggested his airline’s order for the Airbus A380, A330 and Boeing 747-400ER placed in 2000 was, in hindsight, a mistake.
“It is great to be able to say I wish I could get in a time machine and go back to 2000 and [change] the fleet order [made by] not the last CEO, the CEO before that,” Joyce told an Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch event in Sydney on Wednesday.
“But the reality is we have the aircraft we have. We just have to get on with life,” he said in comments reported by the Australian Financial Review.
In 2000, under then CEO James Strong, Qantas placed an order for 12 A380s, 13 A330s (both -200s and -300s) and six 747-400ERs in what was then its largest fleet order decision to date. The evaluation that led to that decision explicitly rejected the Boeing 777, which was deemed too big for domestic services (for which the A330 was originally ordered for), and instead elected for the 747-400ER and A380 for international services.
A common criticism of the airline in recent years has been its decision not to order the 777, particularly in its 777-300ER form, for long-haul international services. Instead the 12 A380s and six 747-400ERs from that 2000 order form the core of the airline’s long-haul international fleet.
