Qantas upgrading their A380s

Qantas is in the process of upgrading their fleet of 12 Airbus A380s.

They took delivery of their first A380 as early as 2008, so the oldest one has already been in service over 11 years, so I guess an upgrade was needed. I just can’t believe the A380 has been around this long, I still remember the first time I saw an A380 at the Dubai Airshow, it feels like it was only a couple of years ago…

According to Qantas, they are decreasing the amount of economy class seats by 30, and increasing premium seating by 27 seats.

Key elements of the upgrade include:

• The introduction of the Qantas Business Suite, replacing the previous Skybeds, in a 1:2:1 configuration that now gives aisle access to every passenger.
• The installation of the new Premium Economy seat (first debuted on the Qantas Dreamliner) and increasing the number of seats from 35 to 60.
• A larger on-board lounge space with seating for up to 10 Business and First passengers.
• An update to the 14 First Class Suites with new contoured cushioning, seat finishes and a larger, higher resolution entertainment screen.
• A new colour palette for the Economy cabin and improved inflight entertainment.

The new first class seats looks really comfortable, and I like the color of them. They also appear to be not too wide, my only complaint trying Etihad’s first class on the A380 a few years back was that the seat was so wide I could not rest both my arms on the armrests at the same time.

They have 14 first class suites located in the front of the 1st floor, in a 1-1-1 layout. The in-flight entertainment screen is 18 inch, up from 17 in the old design.

The first and business class on-board lounge looks really nice too, at least for groups of people traveling together. Each booth has a seating capacity of 10 people, so should be fun. It is located in the front of the 2nd floor, so first class passengers would have to use the stairs to access the area.

I just love having a set of stairs inside an airplane 😀

The new business class seats looks really good too, a bit darker than the first class seats, but still nice colors. They all now feature direct aisle access. All 70 seats are located in the centre of the 2nd floor, and have improved 16 inch screens instead of the 12 inch they used to have before.

They seem to have a large privacy screen between the seats in the centre of the aircraft, so all seats should now be good to use.

The new premium economy seats are located in the rear of the 2nd floor, and features 64 seats (up from 35 previously.) They all look really comfy too, and they have large arm rests, so no need to fight with your neighbour over who will get to use it. The seating configuration here is 2-3-2, which is quite good for premium economy I would say – I have only tried premium economy of Cathay Pacific, and would love to try these seats as well!

The in-flight entertainment screens are 13 inches, up from 11 in the old layout.

Economy is now entirely relocated to the main deck, and feature 3-4-3 configuration. Seats are refurbished and has new upholstery, but doesn’t seem to be too much other changes to it.

Overall it looks like a really good upgrade, and although I haven’t seen the Qantas A380 in Hong Kong this summer season, I hope it will be back for the winter schedule. I would really like to try out the new cabins on my next trip to Australia, whenever that might be 😀