Qantas in Chicago?
 

So I was departing out of Chicago ORD this morning and heard a Qantas Flight 75**(flight number?) on Chicago Approach. I thought maybe QF are flying into ORD now but I asked a controller and he said that it was a cargo flight. I have never seen an airplane in Qantas colors at ORD though (Ive been flying out of there for several years). Am I blind or does qantas have cargo planes painted in a different scheme? Just curious. Do they fly direct to Australia from Chicago?

Code share deal with an American based freight org; they fly to SY, ML and BN I believe; see the "7593" here all the time (US registered and crewed).

When QF get the 747-800, they will open up SYD-ORD.

QF
 

I think from memory its QF using Atlas Air 747's to ferry freight.

Duxnutz is bang on the money, Atlas freighters wet leased to qantas!

:ok:

But wait. I thought there was no money in freight?!?! Surely we weren't being fed a line by James Strong all those years ago! :E

As a side note does anyone know what sort of terms and conditions the Atlas 744 drivers are on?

There aint no money in freight at QF mainline overheads. A lot of incumbents use wetlease operations to cart freight because the margins are so thin.

Atlas crews get a shiiiteload less than QF crews flying the 747, over 100k for LHS but not much over. Like all the ACMI/wetlease ops, Atlas is run pretty tight.

Weasil.........AirNZ does the same thing,...hear them quite often late at night doing the west-east runs...all crewed by USA crews .....just the callsign is "EAR Knew Zeelund Heavy".....no boys from downunder on these jobs...PB

So how do DHL & Fedex manage to pay so much money yet be competitive? Or are they a different market all together?

Different markets.

DHL/UPS/FEDEX specialize in small package overnight delivery, a different ball game to hauling pallettes of heavy cargo around the world.

Evergreen/Atlas/Kalitta/Polar/Southern etc all pay salaries that are not even close to carriers such as QF/BA.

SYD (33°56'46"S 151°10'38"E) ORD (41°58'43"N 87°54'17"W) 9232 mi
AKL (37°00'29"S 174°47'30"E) ORD (41°58'43"N 87°54'17"W) 8184 mi

According to Great Circle Mapper SYDORD is longer than the promised range of the 787 or 747-800 - AirNZ can do a non stop from AKL, QF would have to stop somewhere (ie AKL).


QF did announce a plan to serve ORD with its own 747-400s, the MEL-LAX flight was going to continue to ORD. The plans went on the back burner after 9/11.

Qantas also fly a twice weekly (I think) 747-400 freighter wet leased from ATLAS from EDFM (Mannheim) to Hong Kong then onto Sydney. I haven't seen it going in the reverse direction. Maybe it crossses the Pacific from YSSY Eastbound to the States, then over the Atlantic to Germany, then on to Hong Kong, before on to Sydney. Seems to be only recently that it's been operating, maybe the last two months or so. Qantas wet leased ATLAS also operate Hong Kong to Sydney and back. All use "QANTAS 7***" call signs.

Keg. I spoke with a Atlas B744 F/0 in Hong Kong recently and their terms/ conditions and Hotels were very ordinary.

I suspect most of the freight haulers would have a coronary event if they knew your projected tax free Superannuation entitlement.

Thirty years to retirement for me. I don't reckon it'll still be tax free then! It's too big a cash cow for some bankrupt government to ignore in the future! :(