Qantas reactivates sixth A380 over year-end holidays
Australia's Qantas plans to reactivate its sixth Airbus A380 from mid-December for its international operations, as the group ramps up operations to meet travel demand over the southern hemisphere summer.
The flag carrier says the return of the sixth refurbished jumbo jet will "[provide] more operational resilience over the busy Christmas holidays".
Cirium fleets data shows Qantas has a fleet of 10 A380s. In August, Qantas indicated it had already returned five A380s with updated interiors to service, and planned to reactivate the remaining five by December 2023.
"While capacity growth is temporarily limited by the need for additional operational buffer, including a A$200 million investment in standby resources, more aircraft are entering service in the weeks ahead and several new international routes will start before Christmas," it states.
The group is expecting to fly over eight million passengers over the next two months, noting "particularly strong leisure demand".
On its international network, Qantas plans to launch three new routes in December: Brisbane-Tokyo Haneda using A330s, Melbourne-Dallas Fort Worth with Boeing 787s and Sydney-Seoul.
From mid-December, Qantas will schedule additional flights on its Trans-Tasman network, bringing frequency on Sydney-Queenstown to 14 weekly return services, up from 10.
It will be temporarily adding three return flights per week between Sydney and Fiji for six weeks.
Qantas will boost seat capacity between Sydney and Bali, using A330s instead of 737s.
Low-cost unit Jetstar will begin operating its three new A321neo LRs over the December-January period, in addition to the first unit which joined the fleet in August. These will initially ply domestic routes, as well as between Australia and Bali.
Jetstar will also start direct flights between Sydney and Rarotonga in the Cook Islands from June, subject to approvals.
On its domestic network, Qantas says the group will reach 95% of pre-Covid capacity for the second quarter ending December.
Qantas plans to resume six seasonal flights in December. It will also raise flight frequency and seat capacity on the Sydney-Cairns route in response to strong summer demand, operating up to 19 weekly return services with A330s, instead of 11 weekly return services with 737s.