Australian Aviation — December 2017

24 AUSTRALIAN AVIATION DECEMBER 2017

I

t’s been a long time coming. When

the first Qantas 787-9 touched down

in Sydney at the end of its delivery

flight from Boeing’s Everett factory

on October 20, almost 12 years had

passed since the airline first placed

its order for the 787 in 2005.

Qantas and Boeing have changed

dramatically since the airline

first announced its original order for

65 787s in December 2005, which

at the time was the largest order

placed to date for the aircraft. The

787 program itself suffered from a

series of tumultuous development and

production delays, while Qantas has

ridden the highs and lows of record

profits and record losses.

In all more than 600 787s have

already been delivered to airlines

around the world – including Qantas’s

own Jetstar low-cost carrier subsidiary,

which has been operating the shorter

787-8 variant since late 2013.

“I’m very proud,” Qantas

Group chief executive Alan Joyce

told Australian Aviation onboard the

newly-accepted 787-9, registered

VH-ZNA and named Great Southern

Land, shortly after formally accepting

the aircraft in a ceremony at the Future

of Flight Aviation Center adjacent to

Boeing’s Everett facility on October 16.

“You think of all the work and effort

from the entire Qantas team that went

into this, and seeing how good it looks

in reality – I’ve seen the drawings, I’ve

seen the designs – but seeing it in real

life is just amazing.”

Acceptance of the aircraft marked

a milestone day for Joyce, and a

milestone day for Qantas, which, after

a series of delays and deferrals, is only

now taking delivery of its first 787, 10

years after the first 787 development

aircraft was rolled out and six years

after the first customer 787 delivery, to

ANA, in September 2011.

GREAT

SOUTHERN LANDS

WRITER: GERARD FRAWLEY

Qantas takes

delivery of

its first 787

Dreamliner