Qantas cuts more flight and ground A380's

QANTAS A380-842 VH-OQL (CN 74)

As mentioned previously Qantas will ground two-thirds of its A380 fleet, re-route its Sydney-London flight via Perth, and delay the launch of flights to Chicago as it responds to a sudden collapse in demand for air travel due to coronavirus. We originally wanted to book the Brisbane - Chicago inaugural because it was on the 20th April, my birthday, but for some reason we couldn't get a seat. (Lucky I guess) Then they brought the inaugural date forward to the 15th April. Now it seems it has been postponed until further notice for now. Glad we didn't book this flight but as you would know if you follow this blog we were on the Brisbane - San Francisco inaugural flight.

QANTAS B787-9 VH-ZNF (CN 36239)

Now Qantas announced on Tuesday that it will temporarily suspend flights from Melbourne and Brisbane to San Francisco, as well as Singapore to London. In addition, it will cancel more flights from Melbourne to Singapore and delay the start of Boeing 787 services on its Sydney-Santiago route. Meanwhile, Qantas’ Sydney-London, Sydney-Dallas/Fort Worth and Melbourne-Los Angeles routes will be downgraded from Airbus A380 to Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner services. This will leave Sydney-Los Angeles as the only remaining Qantas A380 route, and will result in the loss of Qantas First class service to London for the first time in decades. The Qantas Dreamliner has around 250 fewer seats than the A380.

Jetstar will make cuts to its international network by suspending flights to Bangkok and reducing flights to Vietnam and Japan by almost half. Both Qantas and Jetstar’s domestic service reductions will be increased from 3 per cent to 5 per cent. “Qantas has put these measures in place for the next six months as a precaution and other airlines are doing the same,”

Virgin Australia has now permanently canceled all flights between Australia and Hong Kong as of the 2nd March 2020. The airline announced on Thursday the outbreak of coronavirus, combined with the ongoing civil unrest in Hong Kong, had proved too detrimental to the business.

Virgin Australia Group Chief Commercial Officer John MacLeod said the decision was a difficult one to make. “Hong Kong has continued to be a challenging market,” he said in a statement.

“With a decline in demand following ongoing civil unrest, and growing concerns over the coronavirus outbreak in the wider region, we have made the decision to withdraw services.”