Anticipating the upcoming arrival ofadditional aircraft in its fleet, in particular Airbus A380 returned to service, Qantas announced a news increase of 250,000 seats on its international network.
Destinations with more capacity include New York, Los Angeles, Johannesburg and Bali. The Australian airline is currently at around 80% of its pre-Covid international capacity levels. This seating capacity had already almost doubled over the past year.
Qantas forecasts its international capacity to reach 100% of pre-Covid levels by March 2024, and exceed them from July 2024. The Australian airline has received three long-haul Boeing 787s in recent months and is gradually able to return more of its Airbus A380 superjumbos to service as it goes. post-storage maintenance, which will therefore make it possible to regularly increase its capacity to meet the strong demand for travel.
The 250,000 additional seats will be added on these routes:
– Sydney-Bali: The larger Airbus A330 will replace daily Boeing 737 flights from October this year with more premium seats and fully flat beds in business class.
– Sydney-Auckland-New York: Following the successful launch of the new route in June this year, flights will increase from four per week to one daily from August 2024.
– Sydney-Johannesburg: for the first time, A380s will operate to South Africa from July 2024, almost doubling capacity during peak periods.
– Melbourne-Los Angeles: capacity will increase by around 20% with more A380 flights from July 2024.
– Sydney-Los Angeles: flights will increase from eight to nine per week from July 2024, operated by both Boeing 787 and Airbus A380.
“We know our customers are looking for great value and this additional capacity will put downward pressure on rates. The extra capacity will largely be made possible by the return of our last two A380s to the Qantas fleet after heavy maintenance and cabin upgrades“said Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace.
