Qantas set for daily Dallas flights, but not yet on the A380

Qantas is gearing up to go daily on its Sydney-Dallas/Fort Worth service (flights QF7 and QF8), up from the current four weekly flights.

That's a consistency which business travellers want, and Qantas is now firming up the daily service which Australian Business Traveller first flagged back in August.

"Our next step is to step up the frequency (to Dallas) and build to a daily flight and we'll be making some decisions on that and subsequent announcements in the very near future" Qantas' commercial chief Rob Gurney told Steve Creedy at The Australian.

Qantas is expected to stick with its long-range Boeing 747-400ER for the daily service, although this fleet will soon include the overhauled jumbos refitted Boeing 747 with A380-style seats, including fully-flat Skybed II seat-beds in business class plus Recaro seats in premium economy.

However, the likelihood of an Airbus A380 taking on the long 15+ hour leg remains on the cards -- as Qantas' operations head Lyell Strambi told Australian Business Traveller recently, "Dallas/Fort Worth is one of those markets that probably will justify a larger plane now and well into the future."

While the A380 has sufficient range to make the flight -- in fact, more range than the Boeing 747-400ER -- the superjumbos are currently seen only on the Los Angeles and London-via-Singapore services.

map: gcmap.com

This range map from Sydney shows the maximum range for the Boeing 747-400ER (lightest grey) and current Airbus A380 (medium grey), not taking headwinds into account.

Note the darkest patch, which is for the upgraded A380 developed through newer manufacturing processes and evolving design improvements. Emirates and British Airways will be the first to receive the updated A380s from 2013, with Qantas to follow some years later.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.