QANTAS (and Jetstar) have announced a major order for the Boeing 787. Dreamliner and at the same time stated that non-stop flights from Sydney to both London and New York were not economically viable. Speaking in Sydney chief executive Geoff Dixon said, ”Neither the B777 nor the A340 provide an economical solution to our desire to have some of our services overfly mid-point hubs. Our commercial people did not feel the savings in elapsed time between the non-stop and one-stop journey, was great enough to appeal to a wide enough passenger base.” Qantas aircraft commitment calls for 45 Dreamliners, with 20 options plus purchase rights for an additional 50 aircraft. The first four 787-8s will be delivered to Qantas' Jetstar subsidiary in 2008, with plans for a total of 28 to be in operation with Qantas and Jetstar by December 2011. In a statement Qantas said that the 787 will use 20% less fuel than competing aircraft.
http://www.qantas.com.au
http://www.jetstar.com.au