Qantas Increases A380 Melbourne-LA Flights

Qantas A380 PlaneQantas Airways has announced that it will introduce six A380 services per week between Los Angeles and Melbourne, in addition to existing daily A380 service between Los Angeles and Sydney. At present, three return services between Los Angeles and Melbourne each week are operated by the Qantas A380. This will increase to four services per week after Qantas’ ninth A380 is delivered, and to six per week after its 10th is delivered.
 
Qantas currently has six A380s in service. It expects to take delivery of its seventh in the final quarter of 2010 and to have received the 10th and final aircraft by March 2011.
 
Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce, called the superjumbo jet "the flagship of the Qantas fleet... Los Angeles-Melbourne is an important trunk route for Qantas, so we have targeted an increased frequency of A380 services to serve this significant American market." Joyce also noted that more than 550,000 passengers have flown on the A380 since it entered the Qantas fleet in 2008.
 
The news was announced during Tourism Australia’s Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE).
 
Qantas also announced during ATE that it would launch a new three year, $44 million partnership with Tourism Australia to market Australia internationally as a tourist destination, as well as a number of other important initiatives on its international network:

*    Qantas services between Melbourne and London will increase from two return services per week to daily services. This will increase from two to five services per week after Qantas’ eighth A380 is delivered, six services per week after its ninth is delivered and daily services when its 10th A380 arrives.
*    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 and Milan, Italy; Toulouse, France; 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, France, Stockholm and Amsterdam. The expanded arrangement follows the authorization 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 on the route.