Originally Posted by Raider1
Don't know why so many knock the A330.
The mature A330 has proved to be a reasonable commercial airliner, unlike its sibling, the A340. The main gripe in Qantas is that in late 2000, the purchasing department ordered 7 A330-200's and 6 A330-300's without any input from Engineering and Flight operations. Thus, there was no scrutiny of available options and configurations by those who would have to make it work properly. The first seven aircraft were planned to be used on domestic sectors so were ordered in domestic configuration. The order was subsequently changed to 4 A330-200's and 10 A330-300's but there was substantial discussion between Airbus and QF as the original price was extremely low (sweetener to buy the A380) and Airbus wanted to improve the yield by screwing as much money out of Qantas for the changes to the original order (ie converting three -200's on order to -300's plus 1 extra -300). A figure was finally agreed but, I believe that QF still didn't know that the order for domestically configured versions meant that they were fitted with a lighter floor in the Business class section which was not strong enough to support the Skybed Business class sleeper seats used on International flights. Subsequently, the first seven aircraft (4 -200's & 3 -300's) were delivered in domestic configuration. After 18 months of domestic operations bedding in this new type into QF operations, it was decided to start using them on international services. While Engineering was developing the required cabin modifications, the problem with the lighter floors was discovered and the cost of modifying them to standard floors was $25-30 million per aircraft. The QF Board discussed this massive bill and decided to modify the three -300's but not the four -200's. Thus the -200's remain in domestic config even though they have a much longer range than the -300's. As Jetstar International is to use QF mainline domestic seats for their flights, there is no need to upgrade the floors when these aircraft are transferred later this year.
The buck stops with Dixon over this debacle.
There is a slim possibility that Airbus may offer Qantas some A340-600's as interim capacity - possibly some of the aircraft that Emirates has delayed. I hope not as this type is a real dog.