Qantas’s third Boeing 787-9 has arrived in Australia, touching down in Melbourne on Wednesday after its delivery flight from Boeing’s Everett facility just outside Seattle.
The aircraft, VH-ZNC, took off from Paine Field as QF6026 just after 1230 local time on Tuesday and landed at Tullamarine just before midnight on Wednesday following its 16-hour journey across the Pacific, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.Qantas has given its third Boeing 787-9 a distinctly West Australian flavour naming VH-ZNC Quokka, a native animal most commonly found on Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth.
Quokka, registration VH-ZNC, joins Great Southern Land (VH-ZNA) and Waltzing Matilda (VH-ZNB) in the Qantas 787-9 fleet.
Quokka was among the list of names for the oneworld alliance member’s first batch of eight 787-9s that was released in June 2017.
The full list is Boomerang, Dreamtime, Great Barrier Reef, Great Southern Land, Quokka, Skippy, Uluru and Waltzing Matilda.
Meanwhile, Qantas said recently the fourth 787-9, VH-ZND would celebrate Australia’s indigenous peoples with a yet-to-be-revealed special livery.
The aircraft is due to arrive in early March, with a special arrival event for VH-ZND to be held in Alice Springs.
Qantas’s 787-9s started their first long-haul route – Melbourne-Los Angeles – just before Christmas. Nonstop flights between Perth and London Heathrow start on March 24.
The four Dreamliners will initially operate a Los Angeles-Melbourne-Perth-London Heathrow rotation, allowing Qantas to offer regular scheduled passenger nonstop flights between Australia and Europe for the first time.
From September 1, the 787-9s are also being deployed a new Melbourne-San Francisco route.
Qantas’s first 787-9 arrived in Sydney on October 20 2017
#QantasDreamliner #Boeing 787-9 VH-ZNA towed into #Qantas's Mascot jetbase Hangar 96 at #Sydney Airport. arrival ceremony to follow #AvGeek pic.twitter.com/JXYFR1CG5Y
— World of Aviation (@the_wofa) October 19, 2017
Its second, VH-ZNB, was ferried to Melbourne in mid-December.
Qantas has eight 787-9s on firm order. The first four will be based in Melbourne, while the next four will be based in Brisbane.
