QANTAS Airways (Sydney) and American Airlines (Dallas/Fort Worth) have expanded their joint business, enabling QANTAS customers to codeshare on an additional nine American Airlines services including to four new destinations – Kona, Lihue and Maui in Hawaii and Richmond, Virginia.
Effective from November 27, the QANTAS codeshare on American Airlines will extend to the following nine services.
Los Angeles – Lihue (LIH)
Los Angeles – Kona (KOA)
Los Angeles – Maui (OGG)
Los Angeles – Atlanta (ATL)
Los Angeles – San Antonio (SAT)
Los Angeles – Tampa (TPA)
Dallas/Fort Worth – Richmond (RIC)
Dallas/Fort Worth – Tucson (TUS)
Dallas/Fort Worth – Albuquerque (ABQ)
QANTAS operates nonstop QANTAS A380 services between Sydney and Dallas/Fort Worth. QANTAS upgraded its three per week services from Sydney to Honolulu from a Boeing 767-300 to an Airbus A330, which will increase to four per week from December 20, and from January 21 next year the QANTAS Melbourne to Los Angeles service will increase from a daily service to ten flights per week.
Copyright Photo: SPA/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A380-842 VH-OQD (msn 026) departs from London (Heathrow).
QANTAS Airways (Sydney) customers will now enjoy the luxury of the world’s largest passenger aircraft on the world’s longest route, with nonstop Airbus A380 services between Sydney and Dallas/Fort Worth which was launched on September 28.
QANTAS recently announced increased services to the USA, and will now offer customers 41 services per week to North America. About half of these services are operated by the pictured Airbus A380 aircraft and the other half by Boeing 747-400s with A380-style interiors.
Copyright Photo: QANTAS Airways. The First Class Suite.
The new Airbus A380 service is the result of several scheduling changes designed to unlock more flying time of the QANTAS fleet, as part of the wider Qantas Transformation program.
Copyright Photo: QANTAS Airways. Business Class cabin.
QANTAS will operate the new Airbus A380 service six times per week (every day except Tuesdays). Flight QF 7 will depart Sydney at 1310 and arrive at DFW International Airport at 1345 local time (the same day).
The return flight QF 8, will depart DFW at 2215 local time and arrive in Sydney at 0605 two days later (due to an evening departure and the international dateline). Flying time from Sydney to DFW is around 14 hours 50 minutes, and flying time from DFW to Sydney is around 15 hours 30 minutes.
Copyright Photo: QANTAS Airways. The Economy Class cabin.
Through its codeshare partnership with American Airlines, QANTAS offers onward connections to more than 100 destinations across the USA, with more than 50 of those from Dallas/Fort Worth including Orlando, Boston, Houston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Washington, Toronto, Vancouver, Cancun and Mexico City.
This new service comes in the 60th anniversary year of QANTAS services between Australia and the USA. In 1954, QANTAS operated a Lockheed Super Constellation from Sydney to San Francisco – its first trans-Pacific route to North America.
Copyright Photo: QANTAS Airways.
SPECIAL LIVERY:
To celebrate the milestone, QANTAS painted its Airbus A380-842 VH-OQL (msn 074) operating the route with a special livery; the kangaroo on the tail (above) features a traditional Stetson hat with a neckerchief in the American-stars print, with a “G’Day Texas” emblem next to the forward doors.
QANTAS Ambassador John Travolta was at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to greet the inaugural Airbus A380 service from Sydney and said he was proud to help promote the new service (below).
“I’m thrilled to be part of this special and historic moment for QANTAS. It’s exciting news for Americans that the world’s biggest and one of the most luxurious passenger aircrafts is now flying between Dallas/Fort Worth and Sydney,” said Mr Travolta.
Top Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A380-842 VH-OQD (msn 026) climbs away from London (Heathrow).
QANTAS Airways (Sydney) flight QF 94 returned to Los Angeles early this morning at 2:39 am after a water pipe burst on the Melbourne, Australia-bound Airbus A380 flooding parts of the cabin. One Twitter report from a passenger described the leak as a “river of water running down the aisles”.
A flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne has returned to LA about an hour after take off as there was a water leak on board the aircraft. Crew on board did everything they could to help customers, including moving them to unaffected areas and providing spare blankets so they could stay dry.
We’re also providing customers with hotel accommodation while the issue is being fixed by our engineers in Los Angeles. We apologise to customers for the inconvenience. There were no safety of flight concerns with the water leak, however the Captain decided to return to LA in the interests of passenger comfort. We are liaising with Airbus to understand what caused this fault.
Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A380-842 VH-OQD (msn 026) lands at Los Angeles International Airport.
QANTAS Airways (Sydney) is already reaping the benefits of its new relationship with Emirates (Dubai) and the changes it has already made on its international route structure. The QANTAS Group has been shedding unprofitable international routes, cutting jobs, reducing capital spending and selling assets in order to reduce its debt. The QANTAS Group reported a fiscal year underlying profit before tax of A$192 million ($171.5 million), a statutory profit before tax of A$17 million ($15.1 million) and a statutory profit after tax of A$6 million ($5.3 million) for the year ended June 30, 2013.
QANTAS Domestic, Jetstar Airways and QANTAS Loyalty were all profitable, while QANTAS International halved its
underlying EBIT losses.
On the domestic front which is softening, QANTAS is facing stiff competition from Virgin Australia Airlines (Brisbane).
In other news, QANTAS also announced a series of improvements to its international network:
The improvements are:
Starting a new route, Perth–Auckland*, to be offered on a seasonal basis between early December and the end of January, operated by a QANTAS A330 aircraft twice per week.
Upgrading one return Sydney–Hong Kong service to an Airbus A380 aircraft, increasing the number of A380 return services on this route from four to five per week.
Increasing frequency to daily on Brisbane–Los Angeles* using the aircraft made available by the A380 upgrade on the Hong Kong route.
Retiming Qantas’ existing Sydney–Christchurch* service so that it connects with more international services from Sydney and complements the existing Emirates service on this route.
QANTAS Group Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce and Gareth Evans head the briefing.
*Subject to regulatory approval
The schedule is being progressively loaded from today for travel after 27 October 2013
ROUTE
CHANGE
EFFECTIVE DATE
CUSTOMER BENEFIT
Perth–Auckland
New route, seasonal.Two return services per week, departing Perth on Friday and Saturday, using a QANTAS A330.
First service from Perth will be 6 December 2013.Last service from Auckland will be 1 February 2014.
Adding almost 1,000 seats per week to what is currently a monopoly route over the busy Christmas and summer holiday period.An internationally configured A330 with Skybeds used on the route.
Sydney–Hong Kong
Upgrading one return service per week from a B747 to A380.Increases the number of A380 services on this route from four to five per week, with the remainder operated by B747s.
4 November 2013
Increase in capacity by almost 5 per cent per week.Additional A380 flying into Asia.
Brisbane–Los Angeles
Increase in the number of services on this route from six to seven using a B747.
2 December 2013
Additional convenience of a daily service from Brisbane.Increase in capacity on this route by about 15 per cent per week.
Sydney–Christchurch
QANTAS flight retimed from morning to evening, meaning that the return flight (Christchurch to Sydney) arrives in Sydney at 8:50am instead of 3:55pm. Qantas code available on Emirates flight from Christchurch, which leaves at 4:55pm to arrive in Sydney at 6:15pm. Qantas code also available on Jetstar flight from Christchurch, which leaves at 6.35am to arrive in Sydney at 8.05am.
27 October 2013
Greatly improved onward connections for customers flying from Christchurch to Sydney and then to onward international and domestic flights.Removes need for South Island residents to fly via Auckland to connect with key international flights out of Sydney.Complements the existing Emirates service by providing a double daily service scheduled at either end of the day.
Copyright Photo: John Adlard/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A380-842 VH-OQD (msn 026) is pictured in action at the Sydney base.
Copyright Photo: Gerd Beilfuss. Please click on photo for more photos.
QANTAS Airways’ (Sydney) normal sterling reputation took another hit again when some of its London-bound QF 31 passengers where stranded for 26 hours in Sydney after two Airbus A380s had mechanical problems. Critics have stated that outsourcing of maintenance for the past 18 months has hurt the company’s reputation and led to several well-documented incidents.
Copyright Photo: John Adlard. Please click on photo for more photos.
QANTAS Airways (Sydney) on August 24 took delivery of its fourth Airbus A380-842 registered VH-OQD (msn 26). The new airliner is named “Fergus McMaster” after one of its founders and its first chairman. The new addition will permit the company to increase frequency on the Sydney-Singapore-London and Sydney-Los Angeles routes.
