Additional Economy Seats for Qantas Airbus A380

29th Jun 2012

In response to stiff competitions on its international routes, Qantas devised a way to stave off operating costs by boosting capacity of its superjumbo Airbus A380 aircraft plying overseas routes. Increasing capacity means scaling down its business class cabin and adding more seats to its economy and premium economy classes.

The modification of the superjumbo A380s will now add 39 extra seats to the economy class mostly taken from the rear of the premium economy class in the upper deck of the aircraft, resulting to 371 economy seats from 332 seats at its present configuration.

The premium economy class, on the other hand, will gain 3 more slots as a result by taking away 3 seats from the rear of the present business class, also on the upper deck. Where there used to be 32 seats, the premium economy now has 35 seats.

The shuffling of seats will reduce the number of Skybed seats of the A380s' business class from its current 72, down to 64, or eight less than the old configuration.

As if that is not enough to affect the mood of its business class travelers, the refitted aircraft will now have business class passengers and premium economy passengers share half of the number of toilets in the upper deck.

On the lower deck, meanwhile, nine seats for economy class are added in addition to the 30 new seats upstairs. All of its 14 deluxe first class mini-suites remain unchanged.

Five Self-Service Snack Bars Axed.

In addition to seats configuration, the revamped Qantas Airbus A380 jets will also say goodbye to five self-service bars - two from the business class cabin, two from the premium economy class and a lone bar in the economy class downstairs.

The resulting overall revamp will find Qantas superjumbo jets accommodate 34 more slots, increasing its capacity to 484 passengers from the present 450.

The configuration program of all its 12 A380 jets was earlier confirmed by a Qantas spokeswoman, adding that the revamp was necessary to suit the demand of air travelers on long-haul flights, which include London and Los Angeles.

Qantas received over the weekend its first reconfigured aircraft and is set to begin service this week.

The airline is expecting to take delivery of all its 12 reconfigured A380s by April 2013. By then, the international routes Melbourne-Los Angeles, Sydney-Los Angeles, Sydney-Hong Kong, and Sydney-Singapore-London shall all be served.