Qantas is removing the Airbus A380 from its flagship Melbourne–Los Angeles route as the airline fine-tunes its flying between Australia and the USA.

The superjumbo currently appears two days a week on the trans-Pacific QF93/QF94 flights, with a Boeing 787 for the remaining five days, but from October 25 the route will be switched to a daily Dreamliner.

Qantas says that while the appetite for business travel and premium cabins remains strong, “this has not offset reduced demand in economy for flights from Australia to the US.”

Fine-tuning capacity

The double-decker A380 has 341 economy seats – more than twice as many as the Boeing 787 – as well as double the number of premium economy seats and 40% more in business class.

The superjumbo also carries 14 first class suites, which are not found at all on the 787.

The daily Sydney–Los Angeles service, flown exclusively by an Airbus A380, is also being trimmed to six days per week beginning October 25.

Qantas will redirect its Melbourne–Los Angeles A380s onto the Sydney-Singapore route to better match ­demand.

Read more: Qantas boosts A380 flights to Singapore

“This is just a normal course of optimising network management,” said Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson, speaking at the airline’s recent half-yearly market update.

Hudson and Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace are both champions of treating the red-tailed fleet as “mobile assets” to be focused on the most suitable routes at any time.

For Qantas, this means amping up capacity between Sydney and Singapore, where the A380 can fly daily.

“But it’s also coupled with us announcing a new route into Las Vegas, which will be operated by a 787 over that peak period in December,” Hudson remarked of Qantas’ revised Australia-US network.

Also read: Qantas launches non-stop flights to Las Vegas

The return of the Melbourne-Perth 787

But every cloud has a silver lining – or in this case, a Platinum one.

Also beginning October 25, the Perth-London Boeing 787 will start its journey from Melbourne, bringing back the popular east-west leg of QF9, which was dropped in July 2024.

The ability to book just that four-hour leg between Melbourne and Perth in modern Dreamliner comfort – especially in business class – made QF9 a prize pick over the more common Boeing 737 flights.

In fact, a Perth-bound Boeing 737 leaves Melbourne less than an hour before the Dreamliner, and we know which plane we’d rather be on.

The Melbourne–Perth leg of QF9 was especially appealing to Qantas Platinum and Qantas Platinum One members, who took advantage of the 4pm flight’s departure from Melbourne Airport’s T2 international terminal to visit the Qantas first class lounge for lunch at the à la carte dining room.

In fact, if you don’t mind an early start to the day and are travelling with only carry-on baggage, you can head to T2 extra-early and enjoy breakfast at the Qantas First Lounge (the eggs Benedict or corn fritters are always hard to pass up), then get down to some work until lunchtime and, later, boarding QF9.

The QF10 return leg from Perth to Melbourne doesn’t offer the same pre-flight lounge perks for Platinums, but again, it’s a better ride in any cabin than the Boeing 737.

Also read: Why Finnair chose Melbourne for its first Australian route