Qatar Airways upgauges to the A380 on Doha-Perth

A380 A7-API operated Qatar Airways’ inaugural Doha-Perth flight with the world’s largest airliner. (Keith Anderson)

Perth now has a second Airbus A380 operator with Qatar Airways upgauging its existing daily service from Doha to the world’s largest passenger aircraft on Tuesday.
Previously, the oneworld alliance member served Perth from its Doha hub with Boeing 777-300ERs.
The change to the A380, which is configured with eight first, 48 business and 461 economy seats for a total of 517 seats, represents a 44 per cent lift in capacity for Qatar Airways to Perth.

Flight QR900 touches down at Perth on Tuesday evening. (Qatar Airways)

It also means Qatar will offer passengers a first class option to and from Perth, given the 777-300ER has a two-class layout spread across business and economy.

“Our Australia footprint has grown tremendously in the last two years, bearing testament to the country’s robust travel demand,” Qatar Airways senior manager for Australasia, Adam Radwanski, said.

Perth is now Qatar Airways’ third gateway in Australia served with the A380, behind Sydney and Melbourne. Qatar Airways also flies the A350-900 daily to Adelaide and the 777-300ER to Canberra.

Fellow Gulf carrier Emirates Airline was the first carrier to deploy the A380 to Perth in May 2015.