Qantas customers travelling on the popular Sydney-Dallas/Fort Worth route will soon be able to enjoy the world’s largest passenger aircraft on the world’s longest route, with an A380 replacing a B747 from September 2014.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said the new A380 service was the result of several scheduling changes designed to unlock more flying time, as flagged in February this year under the Qantas Transformation Program.
The additional range of the A380 over the B747 it replaces on the Dallas route will see the return service operate direct to Sydney rather than via Brisbane. The larger aircraft also means Qantas will fly six return services per week between Sydney and Dallas (every day except Tuesdays) compared to seven days a week with the B747. This represents a net increase of seats on the route by more than 10 per cent per week.
Adjustments will be made to the mix of A380s and B747s flying on the Sydney to Hong Kong route in order to facilitate the upgrade to Dallas services.
Fleet and network adjustments are earmarked to save up to $600 million over three years for the Qantas Group from the overall $2 billion cost reduction target that is at the centre of the airline’s turnaround plans. Increased aircraft utilisation and accelerated retirement of older, un-reconfigured B747s form part of this.
Last month Qantas announced a seasonal Perth-Auckland service that uses an A330 aircraft that previously spent weekends on the ground in Perth, when regular business travel demand is much lower. In December last year Qantas increased its Brisbane-Los Angeles schedule to daily.
This month marks the 60th anniversary of Qantas services to the US. In 1954, Qantas operated a Super Constellation from Sydney to San Francisco – its first trans-Pacific route to North America.
Qantas has worked closely with its tourism partners, Destination NSW and Sydney International Airport to secure its new A380 Dallas/Fort Worth service, and previously Tourism and Events Queensland and Brisbane Airport Corporation to secure its daily Los Angeles service.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The first A380 flight on the QF7/8 Sydney-Dallas route will operate on 29 September 2014. This will be the first time Qantas has offered First Class on this route.
The new schedule for the QF9 Melbourne-Dubai-London is effective from 20 July 2014. The flight will depart Melbourne each day at 2255, arrive into Dubai at 0705 and land in London at 1340. On the return journey on 21 July, QF10 will depart London at 1330, arrive into Dubai at 2325 and land in Melbourne at 2055. Customers with existing bookings will be contacted by Qantas or their Travel Agent and advised of their new flight times.
Customers travelling from Melbourne to Europe will have access to 17 round-trip connections within four hours of landing, compared with 4 under the current timings. Round trip connections for Melbourne customers are:
Athens Hamburg Prague
Copenhagen Milan Rome
Dusseldorf Moscow St Petersburg
Frankfurt Munich Venice
Geneva Nice Vienna
Paris Zurich
Tickets for the new A380 services will be available for sale from Wednesday 14 May at qantas.com or via travel agents
