Qantas takes Delivery of Second Airbus A380

Qantas has taken delivery of its second Airbus A380 super jumbo. The new aircraft arrived in Sydney early this morning (Wednesday, 17 December), and will begin operating services between Melbourne and Los Angeles and Sydney and Los Angeles from 22 December 2008.

Qantas' third aircraft is scheduled to be delivered on 27 December. Its arrival will allow the airline to commence A380 services between Sydney and London via Singapore on 16 January 2009.

"The first Qantas A380 has been operating up to three services a week between Melbourne, Sydney and Los Angeles since October, and its performance has more than matched our expectations, with customer feedback extremely positive," Executive General Manager of Qantas, Mr John Borghetti said.

The second A380 has been named Hudson Fysh in honour of one of the founders of Qantas and the airline's first Managing Director.

"All of our A380s are being named after pioneers of Australian aviation. Our third aircraft will honour another Qantas founder, Paul McGinness, while aircraft four, to be delivered in the first half of 2009, will be named after Fergus McMaster, the third founder of Qantas and its first Chairman," Mr Borghetti added.

Qantas is scheduled to take delivery of a further four A380s in 2009, and a fleet of 20 aircraft is scheduled to be in service by the end of 2013.

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