ETOPS 330
 

Did CASA finally approve ETOPS 330 on the 787? Very interesting what the future of QF International will look like once international travel bounces back. Any ideas on what routes QF would be looking at as soon as international travel resumes?

ETOPS 330.

Will they need that for the Antarctic charters?

Doubt it.
It's about 4 hours from Melbourne to the ice and they usually spend 4 hours over the ice and 4 hour's back.
Obviously using Hobart, or perhaps even Dunedin if they go well east, would be even closer too meaning 240 would probably suffice.

Yes it has 330 ETOPS.

Anything that turns a profit.

Originally the 330 ETOPS was required to take over Johannesburg and Santiago on the 787.

Wow! 330mins from an airport. That is a long way to safety!
It’s a young person’s game these days!

Lucky there aren't many down there - I've been looking in a 747 in the old days pre Erebus and didn't see any

Don't think you'll find any Polar Bears in Antarctica unless they are very lost, Ursus Maritimus is a northern hemisphere mammal The North Pole ar Bear.

My old geography teacher said there are no polar bears at the south pole otherwise they'd have eaten all the penguins. That's why they live mainly on seals. :ugh:

Lucky they bought the GE engine.....

Which begs the question, would Qantas consider flying over Antarctica since ETOPS 330 has been approved? Perth to Buenos Aires for example is a possible route.

LOL. My thoughts exactly.

If we'd known that at the time we wouldn't have wasted so much time at low level looking for them:)

The issue with flying over Antarctica is communications. There is no satellite coverage below about 80S and HF has similar issues - since the land based antennas in NZ and SA all point north /east/west not south. McMurdo isn't set up to handle routine airline communications.

Antarctica has an "issue" with communications for sure, but to say that there is "no satellite coverage below 80S" is incorrect. For voice and data communication, the "Irridium" network covers 100% of the worlds surface - land, ocean AND polar icecaps (and there are numerous aviation certified devices available - you just gotta get the money people at your airline to spring for some extra gadgets). For navigation, you will find that GPS, Glonass (Russian), BeiDou (Chinese) as well as Galileo (EU) also gives 100% global coverage.

Exactly as Red Jet said. Iridium works just fine down there.
And HF to BN at 75S is no more or less reliable than the middle of the Indian Ocean (ie hit and miss, "readability 1" then some adjustment and suddenly "readability 4").
And McMurdo can talk quite happily to ML CTR.

Except that Qantas a/c are not equipped with Iridium (as you say, would they care to spend the $$ ?). Inmarsat coverage does not extend below about 80S. McMurdo is not (as I understand it) a designated ATC facility. Could be done but would they bother for limited operations ?

Class A Airspace is controlled by Mac Centre under LOA with AWC NZ below 60S. It operates just as you'd expect.

Surely the equipment cost will be balanced against fuel burn/aircraft operation cost over the more northern route. But, we all know the QF group will save $1 by spending $10 ;-)

[QUOTE] Inmarsat coverage does not extend below about 80S. [/QUOTE]

I doubt the Qantas flights need to go that far south.