New Qantas Boeing 787 Hibernates in Storage

Waiting for international travel to resume, Qantas' newly launched Boeing 787-9 quietly hibernates in Victorville, with the majority of Qantas Dreamliner fleet.

As the carrier predicts a significant decrease in travel demand for an extended period of time, it announced that it will be moving several of its Boeing 787s from Australia to service in the United States.

From September onwards, most of Qantas' 787 fleet will be flown to Victorville, California, where they will join Qantas Airbus A380s and other aircraft carriers to wait for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Qantas spokesperson explained that "the humidity in California is much lower than in Australia, so it’s much better for long-term storage of aircraft – the same reason why we’ve moved our A380s there. All of the aircraft will be looked after by our Los Angeles-based engineering team.”

It is also reported that the carrier has secured loans worth $1.6 billion against ten Dreamliners to boost its liquidity. Qantas also plans on reducing its costs by $15 billion through its three-year 'rightsize, restructure and recapitalise' plan.

Although, The International Air Transport Association claims it will take until 2024 for global air traffic to return to pre-pandemic levels, Qantas will deploy 787s to re-launch international services when the time comes