All posts tagged: A380

Qantas cancels all international services until end-October

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The Australian carrier is also set to mothball all its A380s. Qantas has extended the suspension of all international flights until 24 Oct 2020, excluding services to New Zealand. Flights to New Zealand has also been provisionally cancelled until end of June, although New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has earlier said that September was a more “realistic” timeframe for Trans-Tasman travel to resume. An internal note sent to employees by Qantas International CEO, Tino La Spina, also said that most staff engaging with international operations will continued to stood down until then. The international cancellations has already been reflected on Qantas’ website. Qantas is currently also not operating any international repatriation services nor charter flights. All Qantas A380s grounded; half of fleet tipped to go into long-term storage Executive Traveller earlier this week reported that Qantas is expecting its entire flagship Airbus A380 fleet will be grounded for a while. The A380s typically serve high traffic, slots-constraint air corridors, including Sydney-London via Singapore, as well as Sydney-Los Angeles and Sydney-Dallas Fort Worth. Qantas has …

Qantas’ refurbished A380 takes to the skies

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After more than 18 months since Qantas announced a refurbishment programme for its A380 fleet, the first of the refreshed birds is finally out of the factory and back in the skies. The first of Qantas’ twelve refurbished Airbus A380 will begin flying the flagship Sydney-Singapore-London route next week, following an extensive make-over which includes a modernisation of the first class cabin and installation of the airline’s latest business class seats, along with two new upper deck lounges. What has changed? The multimillion-dollar upgrade most significantly features an upgraded business class cabin featuring their flagship business suites, as well as their latest premium economy product. The upper deck is also now exclusively premium, with all economy class seats now moved to the lower deck. The on-board lounge has also been redesigned.  Don’t expect to see a brand new first class product on the Qantas A380 – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing given that the product actually works (see my review here!) and remains pretty luxurious even a decade after it was first rolled out.  …

Qantas’ Kangaroo Route to fly via Singapore from 26 March 2017

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Five years after moving out the transit point of its flagship Sydney-London route to Dubai, Qantas is now moving the layover stop back to Singapore from next year. Along with the shift of the stopover point, Qantas will also increase services to Melbourne to twice daily, including a daily A380 service. Qantas and Singapore shares a historic link, given that the Australian carrier operated its first international service to Singapore way back in 1935, becoming one of the oldest airlines to operate into Singapore. In 2012, Qantas and Emirates became strategic partners, which saw Qantas moving its transit point for Australia-London flights to Dubai. This is so that Qantas customers travelling from Australia could benefit from connecting to Emirates’ network of over 30 destinations in Europe in Dubai. With the move to Dubai, Qantas also suspended flights to Frankfurt via Singapore in 2013, and focused on only point-to-point destinations between Australia and Asia. In its announcement of the return, Qantas also announced the extension of the partnership with Emirates, which means that Qantas and Emirates …