Qantas Airways to operate daily Sydney-London, Sydney-Los Angles flights from November 2009

Qantas Airways, the national airline of Australia, is increasing the number of services to London and Los Angeles by operating daily services with Airbus A380 aircraft from Sydney in Australia to London and Los Angles from November 2009.

In as statement, Qantas Airways said that the airline, after it receives its 4th Airbus A380 aircraft at the end of July 2009, would add two extra flights a week on its Sydney to London service, and would add one extra flight a week on its Sydney to Los Angeles service.

Thus, the carrier will increase the number of its Airbus A380 services to London to 5 times a week from 3 times a week, and flights to Los Angeles to 4 times a week from 3 times a week – both from August 6, 2009.

The arrival of a 5th fifth and 6th Airbus A380 aircraft would let Qantas Airways raise the number of Melbourne-Los Angeles service to 3 flights a week from 2 flights a week at present, Australia’s biggest airline said in the statement.

Qantas Airways also said it would expand its network in Europe and North America through codeshare pacts with its partner airlines, Spain-based Iberia Airlines and the United States-based American Airlines

The Airbus A380 plane can carry 450 passengers, compared to the Boeing 747 pane that carries 350 passengers.
In a press release, Richard Carcaillet, product marketing director of Airbus Industrie, said the Airbus A380 aircraft is 17% more fuel-efficient per passenger than the Boeing 747-400 plane.

The 8,200-nautical mile range of the Airbus A380 with maximum passengers, Carcaillet claimed, meant that the aircraft flies farther but would consume about 8% less fuel per seat than the planned Boeing 747-8I plane would. (The Boeing 747-8I aircraft is a derivative of the Boeing 747-400).

According to Carcaillet, a daily flight with the Airbus A380 can replace two flights a day by an Airbus A340-300 plane and a Boeing 777-200 plane on the on Paris-New York (John F Kennedy International Airport) route and also can offer “equivalent total capacity, with a cash-operating-cost saving per passenger of 17%.”