Reflecting the decline in high-end luxury travel and a shift towards the middle market, Qantas will no longer offer First Class cabins in its newest flagship Airbus A380s.
While the first dozen A380s already in service will retain the spacious seats and five-star service at the front of the place, the final eight superjumbos to join the fleet are being built with only business, premium economy and economy class seating.
"It is vital that we align this offering with forecast demand which is expected to be relatively slow compared to Business, Premium Economy and Economy" Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has observed, although the First Class A380s will continue to ply the routes from Sydney and Melbourne to London via Singapore, and to Los Angeles.
The first of the new three-class A380s are expected to arrive either by year's end of mid-2012, and cabin reconfiguration of this more mainstream superjumbo will be good news for many business travellers -- although not for Qantas Frequent Flyers with a healthy points balance who want to upgrade to First Class.
With an uptick in corporate Premium Economy travel over Business Class, there'll be more options and greater availability for avoiding Economy.
Qantas has been tight-lipped about how the three-class layout will look and where the extra seats will go, but Australian Business Traveller delved into seating plans and aircraft layout diagrams to analyse Qantas' options.
In short, we're tipping Premium Economy to more than double from the current 32 seats to some 88 seats by extending further along the top deck. Business Class is likely to see a much smaller increase from 72 seats to 77, including the prestigious pointy end of the plane where First Class currently sits.
