The Qantas A380 is now on sale with the first passenger flight between Melbourne and Los Angeles taking off on 20 October 2008. With supremely stylish and comfortable interiors designed by Qantas Creative Director Marc Newson, the Qantas A380 sets a new benchmark in air travel.

The new Qantas A380 is now on sale for selected flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Los Angeles for travel from late October 2008. The Qantas A380 is also on sale for selected flights from Sydney to Singapore and London for travel from mid January 2009. Even more ways for Frequent Flyers to earn and redeem points. Experience the new Qantas A380 before you fly.

Heathrow Express is delighted to announce the launch of e-ticketing.

As of May 31, you no longer need to collect paper tickets at the station. Traveling on Heathrow Express will be even easier and quicker, as all you need to do is board the train and go.

Your ticket details will be recorded in a barcode, which you can print from an email receipt, or have sent to your mobile phone. This code will then be scanned by our staff on board the train.

The fastest way to the airport

Remember, Heathrow Express is the fastest, easiest way to get from central London to Heathrow Airport. Trains are non-stop, departing every 15 minutes, seven days a week.

They will get you to Terminal 1, 2 or 3 in just 15 minutes, with the journey to Terminals 4 and 5 taking just a few minutes longer.

By booking your Heathrow Express ticket at BCD Travel you will get a 10% discount on the regular rate. Ask your BCD Travel agent for it.

Contrary to popular perception, most firms shun the pointy end of the aircraft when they send executives on business trips, a survey finds.

Only 10 per cent of companies chose business class when booking work trips, a survey by Visa and the Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) found.

Of the remaining 90 per cent, 43 per cent said they always booked economy class and 47 per cent said they opted for the lowest airfare available.

“The days of business travel being seen as a reward are long gone,” says Visa general manager Australia, NZ and South Pacific Chris Clark.

“Today’s business traveller is likely to be juggling a laptop and a PDA (personal digital assistant) in economy and taking shorter trips.”

Mr Clark said while the survey found business confidence had deteriorated over the March quarter, travel was still viewed as a necessary part of conducting business.

Most companies surveyed said they expected to maintain or increase their overall travel budgets this year.

Half of the businesses surveyed said they expected to maintain the same level of expenditure on travel in 2008 as they did last year, while 22 per cent expected to spend more.

The survey, which was undertaken among 500 business respondents in Victoria during the March quarter, found that nearly one-third of executives considered business travel stressful.

Some 69 per cent said they disliked spending time away from home.

Only 15 per cent said they considered business travel a reward.

Nearly 70 per cent of businesses expect to maintain or increase spending on entertainment and hospitality this year, while 21 per cent expected to spend less.

When wining and dining clients, 31 per cent of those surveyed said they spend an average of $51 to $75 per person, while 18 per cent spend less than $50 per head

Only seven per cent said they spend more than $100 per head.

© 2008 AAP

RESIDENTS of Australia’s red centre may see Boeing’s new fuel-efficient 787 Dreamliner in action before much of the rest of the world.

Boeing is looking at Alice Springs as a possible site for its flight-testing program.

While a final decision has yet to the made, 787 program chief Pat Shanahan said yesterday that Alice Springs was being considered for tests of the new airliner’s ability to cope with hot weather.

It would be part of a wider flight-test program involving six aircraft and scheduled to get under way from the fourth quarter of this year.

Other flight-test locations include Roswell in New Mexico, Bolivia, Iceland and Alaska.

Mr Shanahan said the flight tests, particularly those involving the crucial first aircraft, would allow Boeing to understand the structural and aerodynamic behaviour of the aircraft.

He said Boeing was hoping that the flight tests would result in minimal changes, though he cautioned that it could also throw up “potential discoveries”.

“If we’ve got a good airplane it will fly well; if we have a crop duster we’ll discover it,” he said.

Mr Shanahan’s comments came as Boeing allowed media to see for the first time the 787 production line at its giant factory at Everett, near Seattle.

The ambitious program to build the world’s first mostly composite aircraft is at least 15 months late because of problems with the manufacturer’s global supply network.

Boeing is now due to deliver its first aircraft to All Nippon Airways in the third quarter of next year, and the company plans to build just 25 aircraft next year, significantly down from the 109 originally planned by the end of 2009.

Qantas is the world’s biggest customer for the new plane and has 65 firm orders for a combination of 250-seat 787-8s and bigger 787-9s.

It has made the 787 a major plank of its future strategy and was supposed to get the first plane in August.

The delays mean it will not receive its first plane until late next year and 787-9s will not arrive until 2012 — changes that are expected to result in the airline receiving several hundred million dollars in compensation from Boeing.

Mr Shanahan confirmed that the US aerospace giant was looking at ways to ramp up production, which could cut down delays for some customers, but said this was unlikely to help Air New Zealand and Qantas get their 787-9s before 2012.

“We built the schedule back in April and that’s the schedule that we’re working to,” he said.

Asked when the company expected production to catch up, he said Boeing was running studies on lifting production rates, but this was still probably four or five years away and decisions did not have to be made “this weekend”.

He also said he hoped to lock in a configuration for the still-bigger 787-10, demanded by Qantas and Emirates, about a year from now. “We’re still studying the market.”

Overall, he believed the program was in a much better condition than it was six months ago and would be in better condition still in three months.

“We’ve put together a production system and the people in Everett are determined and have the will to get the job done,” he said.

The program reaches a major milestone next month when power will be connected to systems on the first aircraft. Mr Shanahan said this was when the 787 became an aircraft and not just a collection of wires and structures.

“I don’t expect any surprises,” he said. “I feel really good about this commitment in our progress.”