Qantas has just launched a new Airbus A380 route, which is noteworthy on a couple of levels.
Continue reading: Qantas Flying A380 To Johannesburg, Most Southerly A380 Route
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
this is fun! JNB-SYD is a unique route and the A380 is another reason to throw it on my bucket list. will try to tick it off soon
@ julian zentner -- Yep, it's accurate. The winds are strong down there, and greatly impact the flying time based on whether you're going east or west.
Immediately checks award space for next week with all the new opened seats....no standard awards available
For anyone wondering, it's not an ETOPS issue. The 787 (330 mins) can easily make it.
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=syd-jnb&DU=mi&EV=402&EU=kts&E=330,370
what does joburg even have that they now had at least 5 airlines through history flying there with a380s, it's not like its new york or Singapore with businesses or even a popular tourist spot like bangkok
Would it really be possible to see Antarctica? Even the perfect great circle route shown in the post (actual routing often deviates from GC), the flight path would never be closer than about 800-1000 miles north of Antarctica.
In 2016 I booked an award ticket in J from LAX-SYD-JNB on QF. A great but long way to get there!
JNB is the business hub of southern Africa, and much of Africa as a whole.
Mining? Johannesburg.
Trading? Johannesburg.
Banking? Johannesburg.
Hub for touring the southern African diaspora? Johannesburg.
And it's also a great city unto itself as well, for those who bother to give it a chance.
Yep. I used to fly it often on the 747 and I have taken a few snaps! It was really beautiful!
It was original scheduled for a July 1 launch but a bit delayed. The Antartic sea ice is at it fullest in September so most likely to see it then. 787- 9 does the route 6 days a week but 4 engines can go further south than 2 you save about 40 minutes all up.
I’ve been trying to get award seats for June/July 2025 and there is zilch in any class. So frustrating. And I’m QF Platinum so can call to get seats released - and just no award availability.
There’s major Saffa diasporas in Australia and the UK, not to mention the Boers who have Dutch ancestry.
Add to it the fact that SA has a large white population who go on trips and emigrate, and you can see why there’s so much demand, especially to Europe and Australia. We have a similar dynamic here in Australia, in terms of how much demand there is for travel to Europe, despite the distance.
Let's call a "spade a spade" here. It is no secret that South African Airways has had an absolute lack of widebody aircraft over the entire period of COVID and has additionally been financially challenged.
Qantas is clearly
a) finding a long-haul route for the A380-800
b) maximising available seat capacity
c) "partnering" with SAA to "provide availability to both countries"
d) maximising revenue on a highly profitable (for QF) route pairing
e) seeking to increase market share
f) add in a proposed QF resumption of PER-JNB-PER sector
g) everyone forgets that SYD-CPT-SYD is on the Project Sunrise A350 list
h) over-capacity anyone?
i) all of the above
Summer will be fine, but look to reduced daily QF service during the off-season winter period. I bet the strategy of 'sale' pricing during the off-season will be highly interesting. Let's see where this leads to in 2 years because this can only be a short-term strategy. After all, SAA's resumption of JNB-PER-JNB isn't even factored in to the above points.
On top of previous replies - you have to fly via Joburg to get to Cape Town from Australia. Africa has always been a big destination from UK, no reason why it isn't from Australia, plus so many migrants have moved to Aus from Africa. Joburg is the hub to get to other parts of Africa as well.
Historically it was operated with a 747 until the 747 was retired. I took one of the final SYD-JNB flights on the Queen of the Skies and it was fantastic.