The last Qantas Boeing 747 service to Los Angeles will operate on December 3 as the aircraft is replaced by a combination of Airbus A380 and Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
The change is one a raft of adjustments Qantas is making to its international network as it fine-tunes it to meet changes in demand and the competitive landscape.
They include changes on routes to the US, the Philippines, Japan and China that include frequency reductions on Sydney-Dallas/Fort Worth and Sydney-Beijing.
“The adjustments to our international network are part of our strategy of making the best use of our fleet and matching demand by having the right aircraft, on the right route, at the right time,’’ a Qantas spokeswoman said.
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The iconic 747, which is progressively being phased out of passenger service worldwide as it replaced by more efficient twin-engine planes, will be replaced by an A380 from December 4 by an A380 on the Tuesday QF11/QF12 Sydney-LA flight.
This will provide daily A380 services to Los Angeles from both Sydney and Melbourne.
The seasonal twice-weekly QF17/18 Sydney Los Angeles services will also be operated by an A380 during the December-January peak.
Qantas had already announced its daily Brisbane-Los Angeles-New York City Boeing 747 services would be replaced by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and that the new, fuel-efficient planes would operate Melbourne-San Francisco four times a week.
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The Sydney change allows an additional Boeing 747 service to be deployed on Sydney-San Francisco from December 17 to give customers a daily flight.
At the same time, the QF7/8 Sydney-Dallas-Fort Worth service will be reduced to six A380 flights a week. The airline has warned it may have to cut this route if its application to form a joint venture with American airlines is again rejected by the US Department of Transportation.
READ: American, Qantas promise lower fares in new bid for a joint venture.
The airline is adding capacity on the QF3/QF4 Sydney-Honolulu service during the December 7 to Easter holiday peak as the normal Airbus A330-300 service is upgraded to a Boeing 747-400.
This adds 300 seats and gives customers the choice of premium economy on the popular holiday route.
Qantas is also adjusting capacity to Asia to better meet demand.
It will offer an additional QF33/34 A330 service between Sydney and Osaka from December 7, boosting the service which began in December last year to four times a week.
The QF19/20 Sydney-manilla service will be boosted to daily from six times a week from October 28.
However, the QF 107/108 Sydney-Beijing service will reduce from daily to five times a week on the same date because of lower demand on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The airline said customers booked on flights affected by the changes would be accommodated on other services.
“We’re already seeing strong demand for the end of year holiday period on our services to Los Angeles and Osaka, so we expect the extra capacity to be well received,” the spokeswoman said.
With the changes, Qantas will still fly 747s to Honolulu, Tokyo-Haneda, Hong Kong, Santiago, Johannesburg and San Francisco.
The airline said at its 2017 annual results it plans to retire four older 747s by the end of 2019, leaving it with the six youngest aircraft. These aircraft will also be retired in the 2020s after it decides between long-range Boeing 777 or Airbus A350 widebody aircraft as part of “Project Sunrise”.
