Qantas plans to deploy the Airbus A380 on the Sydney-Singapore route from the first week of March.
The move is one of several changes to Qantas and Jetstar’s Singapore operation that was announced on Thursday.
First, Qantas said it would operate the A380 on the QF81/82 rotation between March 4-24 2018, which is scheduled as an morning departure from Sydney and an overnight service from Singapore, instead of A330 equipment currently operating the flight.
During this period, the QF5/6 rotation – Qantas’s second Sydney-Singapore service that operates as an afternoon flight out of Sydney and overnight flight from Singapore – would run four times a week.
Then, from March 25 2018, Qantas will start its daily QF1/2 Sydney-Singapore-London Heathrow service with the A380. The decision to withdraw from flying to London Heathrow through the Dubai hub of alliance partner Emirates was first announced in August.
Qantas’s second Sydney-Singapore offering, QF81/82, would revert to an A330 and operate daily.
There are also changes to the Flying Kangaroo’s Perth-Singapore service, which will operate twice a day from April 8 2018. The Qantas website shows the airline currently operates 11 flights a week on the route, which is served with Boeing 737-800s.
While Qantas is boosting flights between Perth and Singapore, its Singapore-based low-cost carrier (LCC) unit Jetstar Asia is withdrawing from the route from March 25 2018.
Finally, Jetstar Australia and New Zealand’s Melbourne-Singapore Boeing 787-8 flights will be cut from five a week to two a week, also from March 25 2018.
The Jetstar aircraft used on the route would be deployed to other parts of the LCC’s network, Qantas said.
“These changes demonstrate the strength and flexibility of the Qantas Group which allows us to adapt to market conditions and better leverage the Qantas and Jetstar fleets.,” Qantas said in a statement.
“The changes also offer more schedule choice and improve connectivity between Qantas and Jetstar Asia as well as partner airlines through Singapore, a key hub city in our Asian network where we are seeing strong growth.”
