Maggot et al,
I can't speak to anything other than common knowledge on the line, but all JQ 788s are 63.8k engines. Always have been. (as moutere101 says, the lowest thrust rating GE offers on this engine is in the low-to-mid 50s!)
I doubt your mate told you a porky, but really the rumours going around on this forum and down at the Coogee Bay Hotel have confused everyone.
Out of interest VKA was delivered with two different version GEnX engines and since that delivery the older one has been swapped out for the latest version. All others have the latest version on both sides. All are and always were 63.8k.
As for OOL on a summer's day, I understand that the answer is yes. I am sure that the A330 would have wider performance and environmental margins, to be fair, but presently JQ is running one of the highest ZFW, lowest thrust setting combination 788s in the world and it's still meeting/ beating performance forecasts. Boring for pilots, exciting for accountants.
WRT to climb gradients at OOL, I too had heard the issue was originally terrain off the end of 32 more than any other. Now that the type has settled further into service I've heard that the refined numbers have been run again and it fits. I have no idea about future changes to thrust settings. Above my pay-grade.
Allegedly.
Last edited by flyingins; 6th Jun 2014 at 13:02.