So it seems.
On the Airbus website the following spreadsheet can be downloaded.
http://www.airbus.com/fileadmin/back...Deliveries.xls
On the Orders tab QF can be seen to have ordered 179 A320's delivered 66 and operate 5 of them.
Operate 5 A320's... QF?
Perhaps the answer is on the 2013 deliveries tab. When an aircraft is delivered the airline and if necessary the subsidiary is named. Qantas (Jetstar Australia) (JQAsia) (JQ Japan) etc. JQ HK has no aircraft allocated.
From October 2013 on there are four A320s that go just to Qantas. Pictures have already been taken of JQ aircraft in storage in TLS, anecdotally there are at least 7 of them, possibly more.
As QF already owns 16 A320's and leases them to JQ, is it a stretch to believe that QF has bought these aircraft outright?
Questions:
Who paid for them?
Where is the cost allocated?
Who is paying the storage costs?
How many more are on the way to a similar fate?
With 179 A320's ordered with 108 still to come, and 14 787's coming to Jetstar, is it any wonder that mainline is being starved of capital for replacement aircraft?