Qantas took delivery of its second A380 aircraft in Toulouse, France, overnight.

The Executive General Manager of Qantas, Mr John Borghetti, said the aircraft would arrive in Sydney tomorrow morning, 17 December, and begin operating services between Melbourne and Los Angeles and Sydney and Los Angeles on 22 December.

Qantas’ third aircraft is scheduled to be delivered on 27 December. Its arrival will allow the airline to commence A380 services between Sydney and London via Singapore on 16 January 2009.

“The first Qantas A380 has been operating up to three services a week between Melbourne, Sydney and Los Angeles since October, and its performance has more than matched our expectations, with customer feedback extremely positive,” Mr Borghetti said.

“This second aircraft will allow us to increase frequency to Los Angeles to as many as six return services each week.

“The delivery of aircraft three will see Qantas commence of three return services per week between Sydney and London Heathrow in January.” Mr Borghetti said the second A380 had been named Hudson Fysh in honour of one of the founders of Qantas and the airline’s first Managing Director.

“All of our A380s are being named after pioneers of Australian aviation. Our third aircraft will honour another Qantas founder, Paul McGinness, while aircraft four, to be delivered in the first half of 2009, will be named after Fergus McMaster, the third founder of Qantas and its first Chairman,” he said.

Qantas is scheduled to take delivery of a further four A380s in 2009, and a fleet of 20 aircraft is scheduled to be in service by the end of 2013.

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