Qantas has grounded eight Airbus A3880s in a switch to smaller capacity aircraft as the Australian carrier slashes services in line with a number of airlines due to the impact of Covid19.
The Qantas Group has announced further cuts to its international flying, reducing capacity by almost a quarter for the next six months. These additional changes will bring the total international capacity reduction for Qantas and Jetstar from 5 per cent to 23 per cent versus the same time last year and extend these cuts until mid-September 2020.
The biggest reductions remain focussed on Asia (now down 31 per cent compared with the same period last year). Capacity reductions to the United States (down 19 per cent), the UK (down 17 per cent) and Trans-Tasman (down 10 per cent) will also be made in line with forward booking trends.
Rather than exit routes altogether, Qantas will use smaller aircraft and reduce the frequency of flights to maintain overall connectivity.
This approach results in eight of the airline’s largest aircraft, the Airbus A380, grounded until mid-September. A further two A380s are undergoing scheduled heavy maintenance and cabin upgrades, leaving two of its A380s flying.
A number of other major carriers have also announced further cuts to services with Singapore Airlines and its regional wing SilkAir reducing flights to a number of destinations between March and May. These include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, London, Tokyo and Seoul.
While Cathay Pacific will suspend flights between Hong Kong and Japan, until March 28 this year. Japan is hugely popular destination for Hong Kong tourists but the following the Japanese governments imposition on a 14 day quarantine period for travellers from the city, Cathay has suspended its services.
Meanwhile in Europe, KLM is making further adjusting to its flights to mainland China and Hong Kong in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
Previously, KLM suspended its services to Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Xiamen until March 28, now this has been extended until May 3. KLM is also reducing its offering flights to Hong Kong every other day instead of daily flights until May 3.