Qantas to Add Seats to Domestic and International Routes

Qantas is to move all of its services from Perth to Sydney and Melbourne to all wide-body, twin-aisle aircraft within the next two years.

 The move, which will see Airbus A330 and Boeing 767 aircraft used exclusively on these services, will provide more than 61,000 seats - an increase of more than 11,700 seats on the routes.

"This decision is a sign of our commitment to Western Australia, which is one of the biggest growth markets in Australia," said Qantas Executive General Manager, John Borghetti.

"We believe our all wide-body service on these key trans-continental business routes will ensure Qantas is offering the capacity, frequency, and comfort appropriate for the market."

Qantas is equally committed to intrastate markets, with 5,000 additional seats coming on line by June 2008.

"In the year ahead, we will continue to grow capacity within the state, operating larger aircraft and increasing frequencies," Mr Borghetti said.

From June 2008, Qantas and QantasLink will add:

- five additional B737 services a week between Perth and Karratha;
- five new B737 services a week between Perth and Port Hedland, replacing the current B717 services;
- three additional B717 services a week between Perth and Broome; and
- two additional B717 services a week between Perth and Newman.

"This follows our announcement earlier in the year about new QantasLink services between Perth and Karratha, Kalgoorlie and Broome, all of which commence in November 2007. Together these new services will take the total number of seats on our intrastate WA services to 34,380 seats a week." 

Qantas is also making changes to its international services out of Perth.

The airline will launch Airbus A330 services between Perth and Hong Kong from January 2008, replacing the current B767s operating on the route and providing customers with Skybed in Business Class and the airline's Audio Visual on Demand (AVOD) inflight entertainment system in both Business and Economy class cabins.

The international B767 fleet currently operating these services will be deployed on domestic Perth services.

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