Qantas A380 for Melbourne to London
22nd Dec 2009
Qantas has just taken delivery of its fifth A380 aircraft, with a sixth coming in the new year. This will enable the airline to start A380 operations between Melbourne and London via Singapore in January 2010.
Qantas' inaugural A380 service in October 2008 was between Melbourne and Los Angeles, and now with the arrival of two new aircraft there is another route from Melbourne on which it will be used.
The fifth Qantas A380 is named Lawrence Hargrave, after the inventor of the box kite. The airline's sixth A380 is named Charles Kingsford-Smith, after Australia's most famous aviator who made the first trans-Pacific flight from the USA to Australia in 1928. He is considered to have pioneered more long distance routes than any pilot in history. He made the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland, the first flight between Australia and New Zealand, and the first from Australia across the Pacific to the United States in 1934.
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Qantas the airline's latest A380 |
From 18 January 2010, the A380 will operate one to two flights per week on the route (QF9 on Mondays and Sundays and the return QF10 on Fridays and Saturdays), with regular twice-weekly flights to commence on 29 March.
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Qantas A380 business class seat |
This means that Qantas is now using an A380 on:
* Sydney-Los Angeles services - daily services (currently four per week)
* Sydney-Singapore-London - five services per week
* Melbourne-Los Angeles -three services per week (currently two per week)
* Melbourne-Singapore-London - two services per week.
Qantas says that more than 500,000 people have now flown on Qantas A380 services, however there have been some complaints on Frequent Flyer forums that the arrival of these new, state-of-the-art aircraft, didn't herald a sea change in the seating. And indeed the cabins, designed by Marc Newson, are notorious in economy for their dull green interior, and the busines class seats look equally uninviting, with a eyepopping purple colour, and lumping looking cushions.
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