Australian flag-carrier Qantas has completed the first cabin upgrade on its Airbus A380 fleet. The first aircraft to feature the new interior, VH-OQK, was refurbished in Dresden, Germany over a period of two months.
The new cabin features 14 First Class seats on the lower deck which have only received a slight upgrade.
Also still on the lower deck is the Economy cabin. Here, Qantas has also opted for only slight modifications to the screen and seat design. The total count of Economy seats was reduced by 30 to 341 seats.
The biggest changes, however, happened on the upper deck of the A380. In the front of the aircraft, Qantas has completely redesigned its onboard lounge for Business Class passengers. This lounge now features seating for ten people but lacks an outside view due to its location within the aircraft.
Directly behind the lounge is Qantas’ new Business Class product that debuted on the airline’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. The seats are arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration and all have direct aisle access. In total there are now 70 Business Class seats, which is an increase of six seats compared to the old configuration.
Qantas’ new Premium Economy on the A380 is the same as on the Boeing 787 and has moved from the lower deck to the upper deck right behind Business Class where it replaces a previously small Economy Class cabin. The seats are configured in a 2-3-2 layout and give the window seat passengers access to storage compartments below the windows.
In total, there are now 485 (instead of 484) seats in Qantas’ new A380 cabin. The airline expects that the eleven remaining A380s will be upgraded by the end of 2020. The first refurbished A380 has entered commercial service on September 30th, flying as QF2 from London Heathrow to Sydney via Singapore.
Jan-Hendrik is an aviation enthusiast from Germany, loves to travel the world and fly on as many aircraft as possible. His first flight was with a Condor 757 to Spain and has been interested in aviation ever since. His fields of expertise are aircraft accidents and passenger experience (PaxEx).
