The Qantas Group has made modifications to its fleet plan which were outlined during the airline group's half yearly profit results announcement in Sydney on February 23. Two hundred and ninety five aircraft remain on order, with 118 of those planes due to be delivered by the end of the 2029 fiscal year.

"We’re at the start of a major update of the Qantas Group fleet," said Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce. Qantas Group airlines include Qantas, Qantas Freight, and Jetstar Airways. But Joyce also said that rolling delivery delays caused by global supply chain issues have required the Qantas Group to make some short-medium term additions to their fleet plan, including;

  • Five extra mid-life A319/A320s for the Western Australia resources market, with deliveries scheduled during FY2024;
  • Three extra midlife A321-200(P2F)s to bring forward the Qantas Freight fleet renewal process, with deliveries planned during FY2025/26;
  • Two extra A320-200s for Jetstar Asia Airways (3K, Singapore Changi), with those plane arriving during calendar 2023;
  • The creation of options for an extra twelve E190s, to be wet leased from Alliance Airlines (QQ, Brisbane International); and
  • The exercising of nine existing options for A220-300s, which deliveries planned during FY2026/27.

"Aircraft manufacturers are seeing the same supply chain delays as a lot of other industries and we’ve been told that some of our deliveries will be pushed back by up to six months," said Joyce. "When you combine the delays with the sustained growth in travel demand that we’re seeing, we need to find other ways to lift capacity in the short and medium term. We’re fortunate to have the scale and the balance sheet to make these decisions, as well as a lot of flexibility in our fleet plan to make adjustments as we need to."

The Qantas Group reported a 2H 2022 before tax profit of AUD1.42 billion Australian dollars (USD970 million dollars) this week. Joyce called it a "huge turnaround." Twelve new aircraft are due to be delivered to Qantas and Jetstar by the end of 2023, including three B787-9s, seven A321-200NX(LR)s (for Jetstar), and two A220-300s. The delivery timelines announced this week reflect the updated Airbus delivery position (a three to six month delivery delay), while those three B787s, the final deliveries in a larger Dreamliner order placed with Boeing, were due to be delivered in 2020 but delayed owing to the pandemic.

In FY2024, that is between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, Qantas Group anticipates the delivery of five A220-300s, three A321Fs, and six A321NX(LR)s. In FY2025, the Group expects a further nine A220-300s, two A321Fs, three A321-200NY(XLR)s, five A320-200neo, and eight A321NX(LR)s. While the 295 aircraft on order will be delivered well into the next decade, the announced firm delivery timeline extends to the end of FY2029 and accounts for 118 aircraft. Notably, towards the end of calendar 2025, Joyce expects the first three Project Sunrise A350-1000s to arrive.

In addition to the supply chain issues impacting aircraft manufacturers, the Qantas Group says other short to medium term fleet delivery and fleet management challenges include MRO slot availability through to early 2025, which is delaying the return-to-service of the remaining A380-800s, and problems with global supply chains for replacement parts, notably sourcing APUs for Jetstar A320s. However, the airline group said they are mitigating these issues by securing near-term delivery slots, sourcing external mid-life A319/A320 aircraft, and temporarily increasing aircraft spare ratios to provide a buffer. The Qantas Group adds that the scale of their fleet size also limits their exposure to problems caused by delivery delays. Joyce said the investment in the additional aircraft is accounted for as part of the increase in Qantas Group’s FY2023 and FY2024 capital expenditure and the additional aircraft will not materially impact overall capital expenditure.