31-May-2010 11:51 AM

Qantas to increase A380 services from Melbourne

Direct News Source

31-May-2010 Qantas today announced that it would introduce daily A380 services between Melbourne and London and six A380 services per week between Melbourne and Los Angeles.

At present, two return services between Melbourne and London via Singapore each week are operated by the Qantas A380. This will increase to five services a week after Qantas' eighth A380 is delivered, six services a week after its ninth is delivered and daily services when its tenth A380 arrives. Melbourne-Los Angeles services operated by the A380 will increase to four a week with the delivery of Qantas' ninth A380 and to six a week after its tenth is delivered.

Qantas currently has six A380s in service. It expects to take delivery of its seventh in the final quarter of 2010, enabling Sydney-London A380 services to go daily, and to have received the tenth aircraft by March 2011.

Qantas Chief Executive Officer, Mr Alan Joyce, said the steady growth in A380 operations on Melbourne-Singapore-London services would add capacity and allow more customers to experience Qantas' award-winning product and service on the aircraft.

"We are delighted to be making this commitment to introduce daily A380 services on one of our flagship routes," Mr Joyce said.

"The Qantas A380 first flew between Melbourne and London in January 2010, and we consider it a priority to increase the frequency of those services when the next tranche of A380s begins arriving from late this year.

Not only will this benefit customers travelling from Melbourne to London, it will also enable a connection to A380 services for Qantas passengers flying into Singapore from Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

"Melbourne-Los Angeles is an equally important trunk route for Qantas, so we have also targeted an increased frequency of A380 services to serve this market.

"More than 550,000 passengers have flown on the A380 since it entered the Qantas fleet in 2008, and customer feedback about the aircraft has been outstanding. It has won several awards for its Marc Newson-designed onboard product, including the Chicago Athaneum Good Design TM Award for its first class suite and the Australian International Design Award of the Year for its economy seat."

Qantas also announced a number of other important initiatives on its international network:

Qantas services between Sydney and Johannesburg will increase from six per week to daily from 21 September 2010 (South African Airways will continue to codeshare on all these services);
Qantas will expand its codeshare on British Airways services between London Heathrow and Europe to include six new destinations: Rome, Milan, Toulouse, Prague, Warsaw and Budapest (available for sale from 14 June and for travel from 21 July 2010). This will take the number of Qantas codeshares on BA services beyond London to 29 destinations in the United Kingdom and Europe. Qantas will also increase the frequency of its codesharing on services between Heathrow and Nice, Stockholm and Amsterdam. The expanded arrangement follows the authorisation earlier this year of the Joint Services Agreement between Qantas and BA for a further five years from 2010.
From November 2010, Qantas will upgrade its four-times-weekly service between Sydney and Manila (including one service per week via Brisbane) from a Boeing 767 aircraft to an Airbus A330 aircraft, delivering more capacity and a higher level of product and service for customers on the route.

"Together, these initiatives are a comprehensive demonstration of the strength and depth of Qantas' international offering in terms of network, frequency and service," Mr Joyce said.