Australia's Qantas Takes Delivery of its First A380 in Sydney

By Madelene Pearson

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Qantas Airways Ltd., Australia's largest carrier, took delivery of its first A380 aircraft after the plane landed in Sydney today.

The plane left Airbus SAS headquarters in Toulouse, France on Sept. 19 headed for Sydney, configured with 450 seats in four cabins, Sydney-based Qantas said in a statement that day.

The new airplane joins the fleet as Qantas slashes jobs and routes on slowing demand for air travel. The airline, with a near-spotless safety record, was ordered by a government regulator this month to improve the maintenance of planes after several incidents on its flights raised concerns that standards may be slipping.

``This will be a good distraction from all the negatives that they have encountered recently,'' said Peter Harbison, managing director of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.

Qantas will fly the world's largest commercial jet to Los Angeles from Melbourne on Oct. 20, the carrier has said. It will receive two more of the planes by the end of the year.

The airline, the third operator of the double-decker aircraft after Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Dubai-based Emirates, plans to also start services between Sydney and London via Singapore from Jan. 16.

Singapore Air, the first to operate the A380, flies the superjumbo to cities including Sydney and London from Singapore. The carrier boosted services to London after it took delivery of its sixth plane on Sept. 18.

Adding Capacity

Qantas, with a total of 20 A380s on order, is the second- biggest customer for the model after Emirates. The airline has placed orders with Airbus and Boeing Co. worth A$35 billion ($28 billion) at list prices to replace older planes and to add capacity.

The Qantas A380 will have 14 seats in first class, 72 in business, 32 in premium economy and 332 in economy class, Qantas said on Sept. 19.

The A380, which burns 12 percent less fuel per seat than older planes of comparable size, may also help Qantas counter higher fuel costs. The airline has slashed routes and grounded some aircraft since June and predicted profit in fiscal 2009 will fall about 47 percent after jet fuel prices surged.

To contact the reporter on this story: Madelene Pearson in Melbourne on mpearson1@bloomberg.net