Qantas to axe Melbourne-London Airbus 380 flights in March 2018

Hopefully replace the 747s on BNE>LAX or add BNE>DFW

Not sure there are really any other routes which QF would use an A380 on...

Syd hkg 

Perhaps MEL-DXB terminator service? Still allows once stop connection to Europe but will free up at least 1 A380 for SYD-HKG

New MEL through DXB onto other EU hubs? FRA or CDG. New US locations? with EK agreement renegotiation not that far off, there's lots of options. 

I don't fly to Europe, but I'd be damn happy if they rostered the A380 spares onto BNE-US - either LAX or SFO...

I can see where this is heading: the A380s all out of Sydney (HK and Singapore added) and the 787s all out of Melbourne (at least for a while). Later in 2018 there will be a 787 Melbourne to Dallas and the LA A380 may be replaced by a 787s. Melbourne to Europe may be via a Dubai terminator, but I supsect Paris will be next then maybe Frankfurt all Melbourne via Perth. Timing will be an issue so there is not a clump of 787s at the same time as they will need some Melb-Perth domestic load.

They still should fly to Dubai then maybe onto Paris. Or they should change the Mel to hkg to an a380

Firstly, David, there is no such word as "onto". Sadly you need two words, namely "on" and "to", should you wish to express yourself in correct English, as expected from a luminary such as your good self.

I do hope they don't do this. Would much rather the SYD flights were dropped (if any).

Being able to fly from PER-LHR direct would be nice but it would be good if MEL-PER-LHR was an alternative to MEL-DXB-LHR on QF metal, not the only option.

If QF does cancel the A380 flights one possible upside could be that they could start refurbishing the A380s with the new J seats.

This is bad only because the Qantas First lounge may close early if QF 9 is not operating. This impacts all the evening CX, QR, MH and QF flights. This is not good at all...

Last paragraph is wrong. Pulling the MEL-LHR A380 would free up 2, not 3... QF11/12 uses 2, QF93/94 uses 2, QF7/8 uses 2, QF1/2 uses 3 and there is always one in Manila for maintenance except over XMAS when it's used on SYD/HKG. But something has to give at LHR. QF doesn't have the slots. It's either sold them or leasing them long term. QF has 8 slots at LHR, with 4 leased to BA. So that's two arrivals and two departures. The BA lease is apparently quite lucrative. Oman Air paid Air France/KLM $100 million in February for one early morning arr/dep slot.

More business that QF (often called Air Sydney) are happy to hand to their competitors. Depends on pricing, of course -inbound & outbound may well be happy to go via PER or via SYD, but all have the choice and will just buy tickets with other carriers. 

First up. Unless you're at the point end, who would want to fly PER -LHR non stop? 20 hours on you rear end... no thanks. Even if flying business, a stop over gives you a chance to stretch your legs and have a shower.

Well if the PER-LHR flight does indeed begin in Melbourne then I'll have no issues, people already endure flights to the US and just the novelty of flying directly from Australia to Europe might work too if priced correctly. 

Scraping QF9/10 would be the worst mistake they could make. I think atleast flying the A380 to DXB to time with QF1 would be okay. Melbourne is undeniably going to be Australia's biggest city at some point so killing there loyalty in MEL with a move like that would seriously hurt them in the long term. Especially with so many carries like SQ/CX ready to jump in and serve MEL multiple times a day. 

Agree with many here, despite the million spent on sport sponsorship QF lacks an international play to win mindset. Ample demand for the Mel - Lon service to remain as well as the services from Perth and Sydney.  But then again perhaps BA will come back to Melbourne?

IMHO QF flying way too much to DXB and way too little to continental Europe. So if they ditch MEL-LHR route and add (as they said in other news) MEL-FRA/CDG/FCO (or any other continental Europe destination) it would be only positive in my books. YMMV of course.

Anything that puts downward pressure on QF prices to Blighty is to be encouraged.  I hope a third port flying to LHR will have that effect, and encourage more people to fly QF to LHR.  Roll on PER-LHR.

Are loads on QF9/10 so poor that changing to a 787 via Perth, with close to half the seating makes sense? That's a big drop in seats ex Mel, when the pax joining in Perth that didn't fly QF previously taken into account.  I note the start date is in the low season, so perhaps additional services will be added as the 787 fleet expands.

I hope that the WA government have a tight, long term, contract with Qantas otherwise it might not be taxpayer money well spent. History has show that Qantas international has not treated Perth well in the past.

Are they cancelling the entire MEL-LHR route or just the DXB-LHR portion?  If they retimed QF9/10, passengers going to LHR could connect to QF1/2 in DXB, maintaining an all-A380 service from MEL while still reducing capacity and freeing up a plane.

someone needs to tell joyce and his band of merry men that you cannot shrink your way to prosperit, emirates just keeps getting stronger and qantas weaker.

I think that there is a problem with timings for a Mel/Per/Lhr/Per/Mel rotation, I believe that the 787 will originate and terminate in Perth and QF will offer domestic connections. Interestingly with these muted changes QF would have an a380 on the ground in LHR all day, they changed the schedule to get better utilisation out of the 380. My thoughts are that they will change the QF001 to operate via Sin and offer connections from Mel/Bne. This has already been suggested by CAPA. EK will do all the ME/Africa and Euro flying with QF code shares.

Maybe I am an optimist, but I doubt they drop melbourne to London via Dubai completely (and I would define reliance on codeshare as completely).

PS I would travel with someone else from Melbourne before doing the non-stop, unless in business (and even then it is a toss up). Second choice would be QF1/2, then as a distant third the 787 option.

Lots of moaning from over on the East coast. Suck it up we have had ONE QF flight internationally a day and in business the fully sit up crap seats and the cost......still the same as if I had a flat pod about 3k. Shame Alan bloody Joyce. No wonder we all fly Emirates to gain miles and fly in some style not the Singapore public 737 crappy bus you expect us to fly on! I now use SA airlines to get to Singapore.

The news article Qatar Airways plans Airbus A380 flights to Melbourne seems to indicate that the rumour of QF killing the A380 service on its flagship route is unlikely to be true. Surely QF would rather people flew QF metal than on partners such as Qatar?

Perhaps someone in QF deliberately wanted to spread misinformation.

A good solution would be to replace the A 380 MEl to DXB and LHR with another dreamliner on this route. That would not result in a capacity excess and would help keep a loyal customer base with an improved product

With all the finest options from carriers such Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Singapore that operate A380 services from MEL to EUROPE , who offer amazing inflight services, modern hard products such as new seats,  inflight bar, WIFi etc Why would anyone be foolish to choose to fly QF with their aged A380's with uncomfortable seats, 2-2-2 layout, no bar and WIFI.

So what's the news on the MEL Qantas First Lounge? That's the important bit!

Shocking decision. I'm staggered. They will lose so much MEL business; you can't just disenfranchise MEL customers many of whom won't like the alternate options. Can see this being reversed at some point, or maybe i'm just hoping.

This will free up a few A380's. I reckon they will be used on Asian routes that are currently flown by the 747, I.e, Sydney to Tokyo, Sydney/Melbourne to Hong Kong. The A380 is uneconomic on long routes 

cant imagine this is a smart move by qantas, there is already extra capacity with etihad dropping their A380 and then they cut it further. this is very alienating for Melbourne based travellers especially as melbourne will soon overtake sydney in population.

I'll miss this flight, have taken it a number of times but only once all the way through to LHR. Personally I enjoy getting the Qantas flight to out over night to DXB then hoping on to an Emirates flight to take me direct to my final destination.

Such a mistake! I fully understand three daily flights to LHR is excessive but they should still offer the A380 to Dubai so we have the option for QF at least half the way. Meanwhile EK move their second direct flight to an A380 and QF have nothing!

So let me get this straight... Melbourne passengers now have no way to fly to Dubai on ANY Qantas aircraft unless they go via Sydney? Wow, Qantas - what are you thinking? Qantas are going to lose a lot of premium passengers out of Melbourne due to this move.

You never know if Mel > DXB might be a future 787 route, you'll just have to wait and see as more planes join the fleet.

When QF dropped MEL-HKG-LHR to consolidate in SIN, everyone said this was the end and they would take their business elsewhere.

I have to admit I find this pretty sad, even a touch troubling. I guess part of the problem is EK keep expanding their frequencies to LHR instead of directing feed onto QF's planes. I also think its sad that Qantas First is being offered less and less.

How many melbourne  passengers flew on QF9 to dubai and connected to europe, africa and mid east on Emirates  or other airlines, so they can fly qantas? They are not going to choose to go via perth, then  an 18 hour trip to LHR, transit tat one of the worlds worst transit airports, then fly BACKWARDS to Europe. Nobody will go via Sydney! Watch the other airlines boom! Qantas needs to return to its succesful hubbing in Singapore, with feeder flights from all over Australia  connecting to Asia and European  services. Even if they hubbed there with flights to just London, Dubai  and a few European  destinations  there would be more choice for all Australians. By the way does anybody know if Alan Joyce is here on a 457 visa or does he have citizenship?

One sad aspect will be not seeing two 380's parked at LHR.  Always nice to see both ready to carry you home.  

certainly if one had the option to fly EK versus QF on the 380-s on business or first -QF was always the second fiddler

QF is not the first airline to drop or reduce A380 capacity out of Melbourne, it seems clearly the market demand is just not there to fill them, and EK/EY are no guide as they seem to not care about light loads, SQ, CX etc have all down gauged aircraft ex MEL over the past few years. Part of the issue is I think the A380 is a dog unless it's full, and probably why airlines globally have not really taken it up. Also, 17 hours PER/LHR...I do the SYD/DFW return 2-3 times a year, both Y and J and its not that bad

received an email from qantas-

I fly to Europe every year and wont be looking to go Via Perth, I couldn't hack 17 hours on a plane. Much prefer the 1 long flight and stop (lounge and shower) and then onto the final destination. 

This is bigger than the London flight. There are 4 OW airlines that fly out of MEL, whose Emerald pax rely on the QF First Lounge. I'm afraid MEL will be very much a second rate airport from an Emerald's perspective if the QF First Lounge shuts altogether. The current CX and MH offerings is subpar. QF business lounge is a souless cave and QR is using that sad NZ lounge. 

Another OW "Kangaroo Route" option that's usually competitively priced is MH, and they roster an A380 with first class from KUL-LHR.

Alan Joyce explained at a National Press Club speech a few years ago that as much as his executive team love Melbourne, and certain business people and journalists are always begging him to put more premium capacity on out of Melbourne, its residents do not pay for premium traffic anywhere near as often as Sydney residents do. Time and again Qantas has failed to fill the front cabins with paying customers. Etihad has found the same, as have any number of airlines over the years.  EK's "economics" are an aberration. Honest frequent flyers on this forum know that Melbourne has way lower premium loads across airlines. In the last decade I have flown to a Melbourne a number of times to go from J to F on an upgrade and for late minute F purchases. 

Just speculating here - given an A380 will be freed up from next year, and given they've flagged a re-furb for them, perhaps the free A380 won't be put onto another route, and instead they'll start cycling them through the refurbishment process. I doubt they'd be able to refurbish more than one at a time with such a small fleet, but this would give them the opportunity without impacting any other part of the network. Just a thought.

For those that think the QF should at least operate an A380 MEL-DBX, I suggest the reason that they did not do this is that the flight duration is 14.5h, so it requires more than 1 aircraft to run a daily service. 

Qantas doesn't have an aircraft the right size to service MEL-DXB-LHR. The A380 is far too big with too many premium seats to fill and not enough demand. So until QF get more 787s the problem remains. Ideally they'd fly an A330 just to DXB daily from MEL to keep market share. But not sure it has the range. 

They should fly an aeroplane with some F seats for their flagship route imo.

The PER-LHR option is a great addition but it never should've been a replacement for the MEL service.

What tracking route would the Perth to London flight take? 

As has been pointed out, the fact that emirates steps up to replace lost capacity shows the demand is there. Was QF9 underperforming on the MEL-DXB leg? Now the much touted "one stop to over 30 European destinations" is entirely on EK metal. 

Once the A380 services to LHR stop they'll start the mid-life refresh. Once that's complete any seating advantages e.g. newer business seats in 787 over what's in the A380 will be gone.

I've been flying back and forth to LHR for the past 5/6 years and always flown qf9/10, through Sin and then dbx. Therefore you could say I'm loyal, so I'll probably go the Perth route or via Sydney, price will be a determinant also.

For flights from MEL into cities in Europe other than LHR the Qantas website now offers connections in SYD to QF1 and in DXB onto Emirate. 

I've heard that MEL based cabin crew will be doing the MEL-PER sectors, over night and operate the East bound the next day, whilst the LHR based crew operate the PER-LHR sectors... there goes the overtime for the MEL crew 

While I don't like what QF have done, but you can't blame them if load factors from MEL weren't great, they've most likely done their homework and considered the backlash this move would receive so let's just give them a chance and see how it all plays out. There's still lots of time until March 2018 so you never know what's in store.

Remember this is the first in a series of announcements regarding new routes and this new fleet. The more successful the introduction of the 789 is for Qantas the more options they are likely to pick up and the larger their capital investment will be in the next generation of aircraft which will fly non stop between Syd/Mel and European capitals and NY and Chicago. It's about the right aircraft on the right routes and clearly for now the A380 from Melbourne isn't performing. It's worth mentioning that Melbourne is getting a 789 service to LAX on top of the A380 daily so it's not all bad news for us. I think Qantas has a few more things to share and we should let them deliver their entire strategy (& the aircraft!) before everyone melts down. 

SQ, all is forgiven with messing around with the Melbourne flights!  As a Melbourne based F only flyer and someone who has drifted to QF over the past few years due to Oneworld status, I have no intention on maintaining this new-found allegiance.  SQ and LH here I come.

The Boeing 787-9 Non stop 17+ hour service from LHR to Perth

Massive mistake by QF who have wrongly assumed that QF loyalists from MEL will stay loyal and take the PER-LHR-PER option. Sure there will be novelty value at first but honestly, who can say they will be looking forward to a 90 minute wait in PER and then a 3-4 hour domestic leg after an 18 hour flight on the return sector....and West-East makes it worse again. It will be torture.

Does anyone actually know what Qantas' Flagship Route is? I can't find the answer anywhere?

disappointing to say the least.I have mentioned of the new QF9/QF10 to my brother whenever he needs to do a London trip for work purposes but he won't have a bar off it.ex Melbourne there is a nonstop to Tokyo on Japan Airlines that leaves Melbourne sometime after midnight arriving there local time around 7am or 8am.with a decent transit time you can hit LONDON mid afternoon.depending on time of year that's enough time once you clear immigration and get transport to your hotel to squeeze in a gym session and if travelling in the summer months their summer our winter maybe a walk in the local areas.