{"id":263047,"date":"2026-02-01T22:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T22:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/263047\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T22:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T22:12:08","slug":"qantas-starts-wellington-brisbane-flights-on-new-airbus-a220","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/263047\/","title":{"rendered":"Qantas starts Wellington-Brisbane flights on new Airbus A220"},"content":{"rendered":"

At about the same time, its stablemate Jetstar announced a big transtasman expansion<\/a> with new Hamilton-Christchurch and Brisbane-Queenstown flights.<\/p>\n

Airbus said the A220\u2019s overhead bins had the largest stowage capacity in their class.<\/p>\n

Qantas said the narrow-body twinjets had a range of more than 6000km, almost double that of their Boeing 717 predecessors.<\/p>\n

Wellington Airport chief executive Matt Clarke said the A220 was a state-of-the-art aircraft.<\/p>\n

QantasLink recently took delivery of its 11th A220, with four more expected to join the fleet by mid-year.<\/p>\n

The aircraft are expected to open up new direct Australian domestic and short-haul international routes.<\/p>\n

Qantas said the aircraft could seat 137 passengers, with 10 in business class and 127 in economy.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe new aircraft has a 2-2 seating configuration in business class, and a 3-2 layout on rows in economy. Photo \/ Qantas<\/p>\n

The aircraft has two Pratt & Whitney PW1500 engines, is 38.7m long and has a cruising speed of Mach 0.82.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis next-generation aircraft is significantly quieter and fuel efficient, giving travellers a more comfortable and sustainable way to fly,\u201d Brisbane Airport chief executive Gert-Jan Graaff said today.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor communities under flight paths, that means quieter arrivals and departures, bringing a noticeable reduction in the day-to-day impact of aircraft noise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qantas said the A220 had the largest windows of any narrowbody aircraft, and fast, free Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n

It will compete with Air New Zealand on the route between New Zealand\u2019s capital and Brisbane.<\/p>\n

The aircraft will fly up to three times a week between the two cities.<\/p>\n

The flights take about four hours.<\/p>\n

John Weekes<\/a> is a business journalist covering aviation and courts. He has previously covered consumer affairs, crime, politics and courts.<\/p>\n

Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At about the same time, its stablemate Jetstar announced a big transtasman expansion with new Hamilton-Christchurch and Brisbane-Queenstown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[150595,6776,138,1888,6562,1019,117,111,139,69,90,17177,4372,5425,2552,4497,1569,1865,150594,1533],"class_list":{"0":"post-263047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-a220","9":"tag-airbus","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-first","12":"tag-flights","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-new","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-on","19":"tag-operating","20":"tag-qantas","21":"tag-regular","22":"tag-service","23":"tag-start","24":"tag-starts","25":"tag-today","26":"tag-wellingtonbrisbane","27":"tag-will"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}