Aircraft

Qantas has received its fourth Airbus A380 more than a month after its original delivery date.

The Oneworld alliance member was to take possession of the aircraft at the end of this May, but continuing production problems at the manufacturer pushed back the delivery, the airline has said.

The new aircraft will be placed into service from 7 September, upping frequencies on the carrier's Sydney-Los Angeles service as well as on its London-Singapore-Sydney routing, Qantas senior executive vice president for the Americas and Pacific, Wally Mariani, says in a statement.

"This fourth aircraft will allow us to increase Los Angeles-Sydney services from three to four per week as well as increase London-Singapore-Sydney A380 services from three to five per week," he says.

The carrier's fifth and sixth A380s are scheduled for delivery by the end of this year.

These aircraft will enable Qantas to provide daily A380 services from Los Angeles and London to Sydney and increase Los Angeles-Melbourne services from two to three per week, Mariani adds. Once those aircraft are placed into service, Qantas will operate 17 weekly A380 roundtrips from the US and the UK to Australia, he says.

In addition to forthcoming 2009 deliveries, three more A380s are scheduled for delivery in 2010.

The airline has ordered a total of 20 of the aircraft type.