Qantas to Increase A380 Services from Melbourne; Expand BA Codeshares

Qantas is to launch daily Airbus 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 the tenth A380 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.

“We are delighted to be making this commitment to introduce daily A380 services on one of our flagship routes,” said Qantas Chief Executive Officer, Mr Alan Joyce. “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.”

Qantas will also 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.

The Australian airline 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.

See other recent news regarding: Airlines, Airports, Awards, Flights, Codeshare, Lounges, First Class, Business Class, MICE, GDS, Rewards, Miles, Hotels, Apartments, Promotions, Spas, New Hotels, Traffic, Visitor Arrivals, Cruises, Free Deals, Videos, Qantas, Airbus, A380, Melbourne, Los Angeles, London