Dubai, Dallas and Amsterdam are all cities blessed by their geography. Each is accessible to continents, seemingly half way to everywhere and proximate to billions of people with a short flight. Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia are at the opposite end of the accessibility spectrum. Their remote location in the South Pacific requires an added level of creativity and complexity to cross to other continents by air.

The Boeing 777X is the offspring of the original 777 models. It’s also proved a bit of a problem child for Boeing. Once again, Boeing pushed heavily for Qantas to run with the 777X on its Project Sunrise routes. Qantas ultimately turned to Airbus and picked the A350. The Boeing 777X is the latest addition to Boeing's best-selling 777 family, including the 777-300ER – which many in the industry believe Qantas should have originally ordered in place of the Airbus A380.

Now, Boeing is advancing changes to its twin-aisle aircraft to win new business from Air New Zealand and Qantas, shrinking the travel time from Oceania to the rest of the world and chasing the frontiers of ultra long-haul flying.

Promised performance boosts to the 787 for Air New Zealand were a major factor in the carrier’s decision this week to purchase eight 787-10 aircraft from Boeing, according to those familiar with the deal. For Qantas, the plane maker is also privately sharing early details of changes coming to the 777X, aimed at enabling Project Sunrise, the airline’s pursuit to connect Australia’s largest city with London and New York without stopping.

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• The ultra-long-haul flights were to revolutionize the way we traveled and shakeout Australia’s number one airline. Before the brakes got applied, Qantas picked a modified version of the Airbus A350-1000 to operate the flights. The alternative option was Boeing’s 777X. In these things, we always hear about the winner.
• 2 days ago  After opting for an adapted version of the Airbus A350-1000 over the Boeing 777X, Qantas was weeks away from placing an order before COVID-19 put the plans on hold in May.
• The Boeing 777X is the latest series of the long-range, wide-body, twin-engine Boeing 777 family from Boeing Commercial Airplanes.The 777X features new GE9X engines, new composite wings with folding wingtips, greater cabin width and seating capacity, and technologies from the Boeing 787.

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Dubai, Dallas and Amsterdam are all cities blessed by their geography. Each is...