Originally Posted by
Ken Borough
SYD/SCL on two? Thanks, but no thanks!
I used to think like that but, when flying along the coast of Antartica, I realised that fire was a bigger threat than an engine failure. The B787 has almost twice the cargo fire suppression compared with the B747ER so, in some ways, it will be a safer operation. Also, the fuel doesn’t get as cold in the B787 wings, due to the thermal properties of Carbon Fibre.
The announcement indicates a daily service so there won’t be any excessively long slips in SCL. CASA approval of 330 minutes is currently being processed and will be available before June 2020.
It also means there are not enough hulls to replace the B747 on JNB & HND routes - maybe there are more on order that we haven’t been told about.