Qantas to slash first class, pack more seats on A380s

AMID sagging profits, Qantas will spend $400 million slashing the number of its first and business-class seats, with its highest class of travel to be offered on just a few routes, a response to falling demand.

''The long-term trend for first class has been in decline,'' Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said yesterday, admitting about six out of 10 luxury seats were typically empty.

''We think the balance between first, business and premium-economy needed to be re-adjusted,'' he said.

The Flying Kangaroo will ''reconfigure'' 20 double-decker Airbus 380s and nine of its newer Boeing 747s, packing up to about 100 extra seats on the A380s and 50 on the jumbos.

Only 12 of the 20 A380s will retain first-class cabins. They will also have fewer business seats but more economy and premium-economy seats.

The others will have no first class, 400 economy seats downstairs, and a mix of business, economy and premium-economy upstairs (about 550 seats in all).

On nine 747s, first-class makes way for 58 business-class sleeper seats, 36 premium-economy and 265 economy seats, an increase of 52 seats.

Mr Joyce said seats would not be packed in more tightly.

Aviation analyst Derek Sadubin, from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, said it was likely more international full-service airlines would follow Qantas' lead, while corporate travel budgets remain constrained by the economic downturn and other travellers fly with low-cost carriers.