Qantas to launch London-Melbourne A380 services
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MELBOURNE,22 December 2009: Qantas announced today it had taken delivery of its fifth newA380 aircraft, with a sixth to arrive in coming days, and would commence A380services between Melbourne and London via Singapore on 18 January, 2010.
Qantas Chief Executive Officer, Mr Alan Joyce, said the arrival of theairline’s fifth A380 yesterday, and sixth aircraft in the New Year, would allowit to launch the new A380 route.
“Qantas’ inaugural A380 service in October 2008 was between Melbourneand Los Angeles,”Mr Joyce said.
“With the arrival of two new aircraft, growing our A380 fleet to six, we arepleased to be able to offer customers a second route option out of Melbourne - to London via Singapore.”
From 18 January, the A380 will operate one to two flights per week on the route(QF9 on Mondays and Sundays and the return QF10 on Fridays and Saturdays), withregular twice-weekly flights to commence on 29 March.
The fifth Qantas A380 is named Lawrence Hargrave, after the inventor of the boxkite. The airline’s sixth A380, is named Charles Kingsford-Smith, after Australia’s most famous aviator who made thefirst trans-Pacific flight from the USAto Australiain 1928. Both will enter service in January. Mr Joyce said that, with asix-strong fleet, Qantas’ A380 schedule from 29 March would be:
– Sydney-Los Angeles services - dailyservices (currently four per week);
-Sydney-Singapore-London - five services per week;
– Melbourne-Los Angeles - threeservices per week (currently two per week); and
– Melbourne-Singapore-London - two services per week.
“More than 500,000 people have now flown on Qantas A380 services, and itremains extremely popular with our customers,” he said.
“The arrival of these new, state-of-the aircraft, with their cabins designed byMarc Newson, will see Qantas serving both the UKand Los Angeleswith A380 flights from Melbourne and Sydney.”
Lawrence Hargrave (1850-1915) was one of aviation’s most important inventorsand innovators. He came to Australiafrom Englandin 1872 and is best remembered as the inventor of the box kite in 1894. Hisaviation insights were wideranging, including the curved wing and the radialrotary engine.
Charles Kingsford-Smith (1897-1935) is considered to have pioneered more longdistance routes than any pilot in history. He made the first trans-Pacificflight from the United Statesto Australia in 1928, aswell as the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland, the firstflight between Australia andNew Zealand, and the firstfrom Australia across thePacific to the United Statesin 1934.
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