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QANTAS Australia is to fly an Airbus A380 from Melbourne to Sydney, Australia, on Friday, February 23, 2024 to help meet the huge demand for air travel during Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. Double-decker superjumbos, which are usually used for long-haul international flights, cover a distance of about 540 miles or about 849-kilometers, which is as far as Jakarta-Malang.
Initially, 485 passengers were divided into three separate flights on narrow-body Boeing 737 aircraft. But severe storm forecasts limited flights to Sydney airport, Qantas said in a press release.
Coupled with very high demand for flights to the city due to Swift’s concert, Qantas finally decided to operate a special flight to transport its fans.
Qantas airline said the A380 passengers had initially booked a flight that did not appear to be for a concert because they arrived in the afternoon. However, it is known that this was because so many people were traveling to see Swift, so they had difficulty getting seats on other flights.
Concerts in Sydney and Melbourne
More than 600,000 people watched Swift perform at four shows in Sydney and three more in Melbourne. His final performance will be on Monday evening, February 26, 2024.
Qantas usually only flies the large jet to long-haul destinations such as Los Angeles, London and Singapore, but it has one aircraft of that type on standby. After a late departure, Flight QF7168 was only in the air for about an hour, according to data from Flightradar24. The plane flew 13 hours to Los Angeles the next day.
Taylor Swift Concert Effect
Taylor Swift’s tour has had a huge impact on the local economy. In Cardiff, Wales, where he will only appear in June, hotel rooms are already US$230 or around IDR3.6 million more expensive than usual, according to analytics firm Lighthouse.
In Warsaw, Poland, demand for short-term rentals rose 2,020% compared with a year earlier, according to a report by vacation rental data company AirDNA. In Singapore, where Taylor Swift will concert this weekend, hotel room and flight bookings have increased by as much as 30% compared to usual. [sources/photo special]
