Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) plans to close two B717-200 bases at Perth International and Cairns airports currently operated by its subsidiary Cobham Aviation Services Australia - Airline Services (QJE, Adelaide International) under the QantasLink brand, NCA NewsWire has reported.
"QantasLink has completed a review of its network and will be relocating some aircraft around the country to better match capacity with expected demand as domestic and regional markets recover from COVID and travel restrictions," an airline's spokesperson said.
Cobham Aviation Services Australia - Airline Services currently operates twenty B717-200s on behalf of Qantas. It is the only B717 operator in the QantasLink partnership. In May 2020, Qantas announced its intention to take over Cobham and with it, the operation of its B717s which it had done 15 years previously. The transaction has already been completed.
The closure of the Perth and Cairns bases will affect around 100 and around 60 staff members respectively, although Qantas said there would be no net headloss due to the creation of new positions at other bases.
Eight B717-200s currently based out of Perth will be relocated to Brisbane International. Currently, Cobham plies routes from Perth to seven destinations in Western Australia and Alice Springs on behalf of Qantas.
The aircraft currently based out of Cairns will be redeployed to Melbourne Tullamarine, where Qantas plans to base up to six B717-200s in total. At this time, there are no B717-200s based out of Melbourne. Out of Cairns, the Boeing twinjets are used to operate routes to Brisbane, Alice Springs, and Ayers Rock.
According to the ch-aviation capacities module, Brisbane, Cairns, and Perth are the main airports served by QantasLink's B717s with 32.6%, 18.9%, and 17.4% share in total type's weekly capacity, respectively.
The QantasLink reshuffle will also include the relocation of some of the De Havilland Aircraft of Canada turboprops operated by Qantas' subsidiaries. Up to three out sixteen DHC-8-Q300s operated by Eastern Australia Airlines (EAQ, Tamworth) will be based out of Melbourne, which is not currently served by the type. Eastern Australia Airlines' Q300s are based out of Sydney Kingsford Smith, Brisbane, and Adelaide International, the ch-aviation schedules module shows.
In turn, Sunstate Airlines (SSQ, Brisbane International) will relocate its DHC-8-Q400s based out Melbourne to Sydney. The airline operates a total of 31 units of the type on behalf of Qantas, basing them mostly out of Brisbane and Cairns.
