Alex T
31st January 2014, 01:54 PM
From: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/qantas-cutting-airbus-flights/story-e6frg95x-1226814331064#
QANTAS is cancelling three Airbus A380 superjumbo return services on its Melbourne-Dubai-London routes over the next two months because of slow demand for the flights.
The flying kangaroo said yesterday the changes were ad hoc and it was not unusual for airlines to reduce flights in quieter periods.
The affected flights are QF9 and QF10 on February 17, March 11 and March 24.
"These cancellations represent 1.5 per cent of our total services to London in February and just over 3 per cent in March," a spokesman said.
The Australian revealed last month that Qantas A380s were sometimes flying half-full because the airline was struggling to fill them.
The situation was worse on Melbourne flights than it was on the airline's Sydney service.
Qantas axed Singapore as its transit hub to Europe last year and began flying to London from Melbourne and Sydney via Dubai as part of its alliance with the Emirates airline.
There have been suggestions people are opting for the Emirates flights rather than Qantas because of better connection times, and pilots have argued the airline would have more flexibility to reduce plane sizes to meet demand if the airline had acquired Boeing 777s.
A former Qantas executive said the switch from Singapore had made it harder to fill the big planes because they no longer get the passenger feed from planes arriving from cities such as Brisbane and Perth.
There had been speculation Qantas would have to cut flights during the runway works in Dubai from April 30, but the airline confirmed last week it had secured slots for all its services.
It said the only impact would be temporary timing changes between April 30 and July 19. These include a 90-minute departure delay for QF1 from Sydney and a delay of about four hours on most days for QF9 from Melbourne.
QANTAS is cancelling three Airbus A380 superjumbo return services on its Melbourne-Dubai-London routes over the next two months because of slow demand for the flights.
The flying kangaroo said yesterday the changes were ad hoc and it was not unusual for airlines to reduce flights in quieter periods.
The affected flights are QF9 and QF10 on February 17, March 11 and March 24.
"These cancellations represent 1.5 per cent of our total services to London in February and just over 3 per cent in March," a spokesman said.
The Australian revealed last month that Qantas A380s were sometimes flying half-full because the airline was struggling to fill them.
The situation was worse on Melbourne flights than it was on the airline's Sydney service.
Qantas axed Singapore as its transit hub to Europe last year and began flying to London from Melbourne and Sydney via Dubai as part of its alliance with the Emirates airline.
There have been suggestions people are opting for the Emirates flights rather than Qantas because of better connection times, and pilots have argued the airline would have more flexibility to reduce plane sizes to meet demand if the airline had acquired Boeing 777s.
A former Qantas executive said the switch from Singapore had made it harder to fill the big planes because they no longer get the passenger feed from planes arriving from cities such as Brisbane and Perth.
There had been speculation Qantas would have to cut flights during the runway works in Dubai from April 30, but the airline confirmed last week it had secured slots for all its services.
It said the only impact would be temporary timing changes between April 30 and July 19. These include a 90-minute departure delay for QF1 from Sydney and a delay of about four hours on most days for QF9 from Melbourne.