Carry On: News for business travellers: A380 closer to encircling globe

A380 closer to encircling globe
Only Air New Zealand’s Auckland-Los Angeles route stands between Emirates and a round-the-world superjumbo service. From December 2, Emirates will introduce its Airbus A380 to the Dubai-Los Angeles service, the longest route on its network.

Emirates operates two A380s each day from Auckland to Dubai and this will rise to three times a day from October. Emirates is the largest operator of A380s with 34 in service and has an additional 56 on order.

Los Angeles will become Emirates’ 23rd A380 destination with Zurich another new addition. The Emirates A380s have 489 seats with 14 private first class suites, 76 lie-flat beds in business and 399 seats in economy. All have inflight wi-fi, mobile phone connectivity and entertainment system with more than 1400 channels of films, TV programmes, games and music.

Airbus super-sizes superjumbo
Meanwhile, Airbus revealed a new A380 layout with as many as 22% more seats, and an optional 11 seats across in economy. The Airbus Innovation Days international media conference in Toulouse was told slimline seats and changes to the cabin layout helped boost seat numbers while also delivering airlines a 7% reduction in cost-per-seat.

The new floorplan boasts 558 seats spread across a standard three-class configuration of first, business and economy, compared with existing maximum of 490 seats in the same mix. Airbus has allowed for 10 first class suites and 84 business class seats on the upper deck. Most of the 464 economy seats are found on the lower level but there's also a smaller economy cabin upstairs behind business class.

Jetstar boosts main trunk business flights
Jetstar is adding more flights between Auckland and Christchurch while dropping services between Wellington and Queenstown at the end of the winter season (September 1). The five extra weekly peak-time flights will begin in September, in response to demand. "The weekday demand between Christchurch and Auckland is very high at the moment, partially because of the rebuild of the city, so we are delighted to see Jetstar respond in this way," Christchurch Airport chief executive Jim Boult says. Earlier this week, Air New Zealand announced it was stepping up capacity on its Wellington-Queenstown service from July to mid-October by replacing ATR turboprop aircraft with Boeing 737-300 jets.