A new seasonal service between Perth and Auckland is among a raft of changes revealed by Qantas today in the latest restructure of its international network.
The twice weekly seasonal service will commence in early December and will run until the end of January, operated by an Airbus A330 aircraft.
In addition, the airline confirmed it will upgrade one return Sydney-Hong Kong service to an Airbus A380 aircraft taking the number of A380 return services on the route to five per week and increasing weekly seats by 5%.
The aircraft made available by the upgrade will be used to increase frequency on its Brisbane-Los Angeles route to daily.
Qantas will also retime its existing Sydney-Christchurch service to enable more connections with international services from the NSW capital and to better complement the Emirates service on the route.
“We’re able to make these changes by simply using our assets better,” Qantas boss Alan Joyce said.
“For instance, the new seasonal Perth to Auckland service used an A330 that would otherwise be on the ground over the weekend.”
Meanwhile, he highlighted the benefits for inbound tourism, with the changes coinciding with the weakening dollar which is expected to boost Australia’s appeal as a destination.
Today also marks the start of the tie-up between Qantas and Emirates on the trans-Tasman which has seen both carriers align fares and begin codeshare arrangements on around 130 flights per week between Australia and New Zealand,. The new arrangements are partly behind the schedule change on the Sydney-Christchurch and the new Perth-Auckland service, Joyce revealed.
