As promised when it took delivery of its first Airbus A380 last September, Qantas has put the superjumbo on the popular Sydney-London (via Singapore) sector, also known as the Kangaroo Route. The new service is offered three times a week with flight QF 31 departing Sydney for London on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and the return flight QF 32 leaving the British capital on Wednesday, Saturdays and Sundays.
Qantas now goes head to head with Singapore Airlines’ A380, which also serves the Singapore-London run twice daily.
Recently, SIA announced it was reducing frequencies on this route for the period between January 26 and March 26, which has affected the operation of Boeing B747-400s but not the superjumbo.
The A380 is also being used on the Melbourne-Los Angeles and Sydney-LA routes. Qantas’ A380 features 450 seats spread out over four classes, 14 for First Class, 72 for Business Class, 32 for Premium Economy and 332 for Economy.
In other news, Air Austral, based in Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, has opted for practicality when it takes delivery of two A380s. Both superjumbos will be used on the busy Reunion Island-Paris sector and feature only Economy Class with 840 seats.
“Our vision is to provide a low-cost, high quality service on the heavy traffic route between La Reunion and Paris and the A380 allows us to make this vision a reality,” said Air Austral president Gerard Etheve.
The A380 has the lowest cost per seat and is the most environment-friendly aircraft flying today while at the same time providing a high level of passenger comfort,” he added.
Airbus said that should Air Austral succeed with their plan, it could have the most fuel efficient aircraft in the world in terms of passengers carried – consuming less than two litres of fuel per 100 km per passenger.
For more details visit www.qantas.com.au and www.air-austral.com
He Ruiming and Margie T Logarta
