Things are starting to move faster for Australian flag carrier Qantas. The airline has just announced it will be significantly increasing capacity on a selection of key routes as early as fall 2023. So let’s take a look at which flights Qantas will be powering up and when it will all happen.
- Why Is Qantas Increasing Flight Capacity Now?
- Which Flights Will Increase Capacity?
- When Will the changes take effect?
Why Is Qantas Increasing Flight Capacity Now?
There are two reasons for the Australian flag carrier to increase flights at this moment:
- International air travel demand is continuously rising. The airline’s forecast is that they will reach pre pandemic passenger levels in March 2024. Therefore more passengers travelling translates into more demand for flights from and to Australia hence the need to increase capacity.
- The airline has just recently received 3 new 787s it was awaiting from Boeing and is re-introducing into its active fleet some of its stored A380s. This means that it can now shuffle around with more flexibility its larger capacity planes to increase available seats on key routes.
On Which Flights Will Qantas Increase Capacity?
The new aircraft arrival and the A380 return, now allow Qantas to launch higher capacity or more frequent services on some strategically important and profitable routes. Here are which routes the airline will deploy larger planes on with higher seat capacity:
- Sydney-Bali
- Sydney-Auckland-New York
- Sydney-Johannesburg
- Melbourne-Los Angeles
- Sydney-Los Angeles
When And How Will These Flights Change?
Now that we know which routes and sectors will be affected by the airline’s plan to ramp up capacity let’s take a look at how it’ll all unfold in the coming months:
- On the Sydney-Bali route Qantas will be switching from the narrow body Boeing 737 to the Airbus A330. The change will allow for a larger number of passengers and more comfort in business class with fully flat bed seats. The aircraft change will take plane in October 2023.
- Sydney-Auckland-New York flights will go from being a 4 times per week service to a daily connection. This will be effective starting August 2024.
- Sydney-Johannesburg for the first time ever will be served by Qantas’ largest aircraft, the Airbus A380. Starting July 2024.
- Melbourne-Los Angeles, just like the Sydney flight, will be served by the Airbus A380, starting July 2024.
- Finally Sydney-Los Angeles, will have more weekly flights going from 8 to nine, starting July 2024
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