Just the other day I wrote about the possibility of Qantas cutting their A380 Melbourne to London services due to the new 17-hour Perth to London route on the B787 and the increasing competition from Emirates and reputable Asian carriers such as Singapore, Cathay, Thai and Malaysia Airlines.
A day after Qantas announced that they were going to fly the inaugural flight to London from the west coast of Australia, Qatar Airways issued a statement regarding their plans to upgrade their daily B77-300 to the A380. The current B777-300 has 24 seats in the business class and 356 seats in the economy class. The introduction of the A380 will double the business class seats to 48 and a staggering 44% increase in the economy class to 512 seats.
Qatar plans to start flying their A380 aircraft come 30 June, 2017. Melbourne to Doha, a journey that will take you about 14 hours and 20 minutes, was Qatar’s first Australian destination in 2009. According to Qatar CEO Akbar Al Baker, he mentioned that there is
… a clear need to inject additional capacity on the Melbourne service. We are delighted to introduce our A380 aircraft to Melbourne after seven years of operation in the world’s most liveable city.
Qatar and Emirates (with Qantas), both OneWorld partners are offering very competitive prices to London/Europe.
The only difference between Qantas and the three Middle-eastern carriers is that Qantas offers a Premium Economy class on their A380.
Well depends on how you look at it, Qatar considers their economy class already a premium product. Qatar’s CEO, Mr Al Baker, once said,
“We won’t roll-out premium economy… We give you a premium economy seat with an economy class price.”
So there you go, Qatar might be the best bang for your buck.