Qantas Airways plans to deploy larger widebodies, including Boeing 747-400s, on several Australian domestic routes as part of a plan to increase capacity to Perth.
Australia's flag carrier says that from May, it will operate six weekly services on the Sydney-Perth route using 747-400s. Services on internationally configured Airbus A330s, which have more premium seating, will increase from three to five weekly.
On the Brisbane-Perth route, the Oneworld carrier plans to introduce domestic wide-body A330-200s on seven services a week. In addition, it will upgrade six services on which it uses Boeing 737s to widebody operations.
Three internationally configured A330s will also be added to the airline's Melbourne-Perth service, says Qantas.
The changes are due to the growing demand for travel to Perth from business passengers, says Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. Competitors like Virgin Blue have said that they plan to increase frequencies to Perth, but Joyce says that they will not be able to "match the service that Qantas offers" on board its aircraft.
"Today's announcement increases wide-body aircraft used across the Perth to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane routes to more than 90% and increases total capacity by 15%," he says.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
