Qantas to start A380 services to Los Angeles this month

SYDNEY - Qantas has said it would resume flights to Los Angeles using its Airbus A380 superjumbos from January 16.

News.com.au quoted the airline as saying that the first A380 flight bound for the US will be QF 93 departing from Melbourne to Los Angeles.

Calling safety as the top priority, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said that the decision not to operate Los Angeles services “allowed us to gain further operational experience before deploying the A380 on these routes.”

“In close consultation with Rolls-Royce, we are now confident that we can begin flying the A380 to and from Los Angeles without any conditions on the use of maximum engine thrust. In the meantime, our A380 engine inspection process continues as we gradually restore the aircraft to our international network,” he added.

Qantas further said that for the rest of January, it would operate 14 A380 services a week - three flights a week between Melbourne and London, via Singapore, four flights a week between Sydney and Los Angeles, and a daily service between Sydney and London, via Singapore.

The airline had grounded the A380 fleet and suspended flights on the Los Angeles-Australia routes in November last year to monitor the performance of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines on the aircraft. The moves came after a Qantas flight on the A380 aircraft had made an emergency landing in Singapore and one of its Trent 900 engines disintegrated. (ANI)