Heathrow gets A380 flights to Sydney

[January 16th 2009]

Travellers will now be able to fly to Sydney on the Airbus A380 superjumbo from Heathrow airport.

Australian airline Qantas launched its first flight from Sydney to Heathrow on the A380 today. The airline will operate three A380 flights a week on the Kangaroo Route. Flights from Sydney to London via Singapore will operate on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The return flights from London to Sydney, also via Singapore, will depart on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

"Since we operated our first A380 service between Melbourne and Los Angeles in October last year, this aircraft has generated extremely positive feedback from our customers," says Qantas executive general manager, John Borghetti.

"It has delivered on our vision, realised by Qantas Creative Director Marc Newson, of offering customers a new, stylish long haul travel experience, more space and more comfort. It has also met our expectations in terms of aircraft performance. Following the delivery of a third aircraft at the end of December, we are now ready to introduce the Qantas A380 to the Singapore and UK markets," Borghetti adds.

The Qantas A380 is configured with 450 seats in four classes. First class has 14 luxurious suites, business class offers 72 fully-flat Skybed sleeper seats, premium economy class has 32 extra wide seats with more recline and legroom, while economy class has 332 seats styled by March Newson and manufactured by legendary race car specialist Recaro.

Qantas expects to take delivery of a further four of the double decker A380s during 2009, with its next aircraft due in May.

Qantas becomes the third airline to operate flights using the A380 from Heathrow. Singapore Airlines was the first to offer A380 flights from Heathrow, in its case to Singapore. Emirates Airline then introduced A380 flights from Heathrow to Dubai in July last year.

Emirates is currently the largest customer for the A380 with a total order of 58. In February the airline will launch flights on the A380 between Dubai and Sydney and Auckland. Emirates says its A380s make less than half the noise of a 747 jumbo jet and use 20 per cent less fuel.

Written by: Nick Purdom