With the Qantas A380 soaring once more, the airline is adding the superjumbo – now with new business class seats and onboard lounges – onto the popular Melbourne-Los Angeles route. Qantas’ schedule now lists the A380 flying three days a week as QF93 starting October 30 – specifically every Monday, Thursday and Saturday – delivering a substantial boost in capacity over the Boeing 787 Dreamliners which ply the trans-Pacific corridor the rest of the week. Some of those Boeing 787 flights also have an 11pm departure as flight QF95, reaching LAX around 6-7pm – less than ideal if you’ve got a connecting flight, especially to the US east coast – compared to the more familiar 11am take-off of QF93.
In addition to carrying Qantas’ latest Business Suite, the A380s of course mark the return of first class (including that ‘Harry Potter’ suite below the stairs) between Melbourne and Los Angeles. Qantas’ sole competitor on the route is Virgin Australia partner United Airlines, which lacks first class but offers its well-regarded Polaris business class on the 16-hour trek.
With seven A380s already flying, Qantas spokesperson confirmed to Executive Traveller that another superjumbo is set to return in the coming months, bringing the tally to eight. The final two won’t return until 2024, as each needs around a hundred days of maintenance and aircraft maintenance facilities around the world are already over-booked while airlines around the world rebuild their own fleets.