Travellers to Singapore will be hardest hit by cuts to the Qantas network announced today.
The QF5/6 and QF51/52 flights from Sydney and Brisbane to the Asian hub will be downgraded from Boeing 747 jumbo jets to Airbus A330 aircraft by September this year, while Perth will lose its daily Singapore flight as of May 12.
Ageing and fuel-guzzling they may be, but these jumbos were recently refitted with the same premium economy seats, lie-flat beds in business class and widescreen inflight video displays as Qantas’ flagship Airbus A380.
In their place will be smaller Airbus A330s, which are ironically newer than the wrinkled jumbos yet offer a lower grade of service.
There’s no premium economy seating, robbing travellers of a budget-friendly option for extra legroom and comfort on the eight-hour trip.
Things don’t get better at the pointy end of the plane, where business travellers will find older seats which can only recline to an angle rather than stretch out to a fully flat bed.
Qantas has pledged to replace the A330’s ‘sloping sleepers’ with its impressive new lie-flat Business Suite.
But with the first of these not due until the end of this year, and the fleet-wide upgrade not complete until mid-2016, Singapore-bound travellers will face a seat lottery through 2015 and beyond rather than being assured of a good night’s sleep.
Qantas will also shutter its final international route from Perth in May, axing the daily service between Perth and Singapore and directing its would-be passengers to partner Emirates or its low-cost offshoots Jetstar and Jetstar Asia.
Additional reporting by Chris Chamberlin
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David Flynn is the editor of Australian Business Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
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Singapore travellers slugged by Qantas cutbacks
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