American Airlines’ new Los Angeles-Sydney service will operate as an afternoon departure from Sydney and an overnight flight from LAX.
The oneworld alliance member and Qantas partner has released the flight times for its return to Australia for the first time in two decades, with AA73 scheduled to depart Los Angeles at 2150 local time and arrive in Sydney at 0755 two days later.
Meanwhile, the reciprocal AA72 is scheduled to take off from Sydney at 1200 for a 0650 landing in Los Angeles.
The flight timings are similar to Qantas’s daily A380 Sydney-Los Angeles service, with the departures taking place within an hour of QF11 and QF12.
Tickets for the new American flights, which will be operated by three-class Boeing 777-300ERs and due to begin from December 19, go on sale from Sunday (US time).
“Expanding our global footprint to another continent is an important step for American as we continue to invest in our network to provide the best possible travel experience for our customers,” American chief marketing officer Andrew Nocella said in a statement on Thursday (US time).
“We are eager to begin service to Australia with our flagship aircraft, the Boeing 777-300ER, which offers amenities and service that international travellers recognise as one of the best travel experiences in the industry.”
American and Qantas were granted interim authorisation from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for an expanded joint business agreement to reflect the US carrier’s return to Australia and the Flying Kangaroo’s resumption of Sydney-San Francisco flights.
Qantas is reducing the frequency of its evening departure from Sydney to Los Angeles from daily to three times weekly and afternoon flights from Melbourne to Los Angeles from three to two flights a week to free up a Boeing 747 to return to San Francisco for the first time since 2011.
