As part of the airline’s expansion into Japan, the new direct Brisbane - Narita service will operate four-times weekly from August next year, using Airbus A330 aircraft. The Sydney – Haneda service will launch on July 30, 2015 using a Boeing 747. The service expansion to Japan will add 4,000 seats per week to the airline’s schedule.
The announcements follow Qantas’ recent confirmation that it had obtained peak time slots to operate flights at times suitable for business travellers, and the airline is still to announce three remaining weekly services to fly to and from Japan.
Services will depart Brisbane at 11:15am arriving into Narita at 19:30pm, and returning flights will depart Narita at 20:55pm, arriving into Brisbane at 06:55am.
The Sydney – Haneda service will depart Sydney at 20:40pm, arriving into Haneda at 05:30am, and returning flights will depart Haneda at 22:00, arriving into Sydney at 8:30am.
The extra capacity comes after departures from Australia to Japan have increased by 17 percent from the previous year.
“This is great news for Brisbane customers wanting to visit Japan but it’s also great news for tourism because it makes Queensland more accessible to Japanese travellers,’’ Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said during a visit to the airline’s Brisbane maintenance facility, where to announcement was made.
Mr Joyce was in Brisbane to inspect the first of the airline’s A330’s undergoing refurbishment to include the new business class seats.
“We expect the Sydney to Haneda services to be particularly popular with business travellers, and this traffic is likely to keep growing off the back of the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and Japan,” he added
The refurbished fleet will include new lie-flat Business Suites, upgraded Economy seating, and new in-flight entertainment, and will be gradually introduced onto the new Narita service.
“We’re proud to be doing work on our A330s in Brisbane, where we have more than 200 engineers and support staff working for 30 days on each aircraft to install 250,000 individual parts,” Mr Joyce said.
With the entire fleet expected to be completed by the end of 2016, some of the refurbished fleet will start flying domestically in late December between Sydney and Perth. The first international reconfigured aircraft is due to enter service in mid-January on the Melbourne – Singapore route.
Jetstar have also introduced flights between Japan and Australia, offering services from Cairns and the Gold Coast to Japan.
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