Airlines are constantly shuffling their planes between routes, riding the tides of seasonal passenger demand. In the last couple of days, both China Southern and Malaysia Airlines have announced some A380 flights into Australia over the December/January period. It gives fans of the A380 a chance to fly on routes that don’t usually see the giant plane.

According to Routes Online, China Southern will be sending its A380 south to Melbourne from Guangzhou throughout January. Malaysia Airlines will send its A380 to Sydney on a select number of days in December 2019.

It opens up some interesting travel possibilities - an around the world flight on OneWorld A380s, for instance. Both China Southern and Malaysia are well known for their competitive premium fares and reasonably generous availability when trying to redeem points.

China Southern A380 heading to Melbourne.

China Southern operates three return services a day between Guangzhou and Melbourne. Over time, the big Chinese carrier has dumped excess capacity on the route, but it has since scaled back to using A330-200s, flying up to 774 passengers each way each day across business, premium economy, and economy classes.

But Routes Online is advising that between January 10, 2019, and February 13, 2020, one of those thrice daily A330-200 flights will be flown by an A380.

It appears that the flights affected are CZ321 and CZ344. CZ321 is the daily evening departure from Guangzhou, leaving at 21:10 local time. It arrives in Melbourne the following morning at 09:40. After spending two hours on the ground, the A380 will return to Guangzhou as CZ344, departing Melbourne at 11:40 and arriving at 18:00.

That Melbourne departure …. it’s a nine and a half hour flight that’s compressed into an afternoon. A nine-hour afternoon first in first class, eating and drinking your way north, arriving at the perfect time to get through immigration and collapse into bed at the hotel. It’s not the worst idea.

The Malaysia Airlines A380 down to Sydney

In comparison, Malaysian Airlines’ A380 offering into Sydney is a much more restricted affair. 

Malaysia Airlines flies twice a day into Sydney, competing with AirAsia on a route that Qantas, oddly enough, doesn’t operate on. Malaysia Airlines currently flies A330-300s into Sydney, meaning Sydney bound passengers are missing out on Malaysia's new business suites.

But there will be a chance to try out one of the best business class products in the sky when Malaysia Airlines operates three A380 return services between Kuala Lumpur and Sydney during December 2019.

Routes Online is reporting that MH123 and MH122 will be operated by A380 aircraft on the following dates;

• Kuala Lumpur - Sydney; December 5, December 6, and December 12, 2019.
• Sydney - Kuala Lumpur: December 6, December 7, and December 13, 2019.

MH123 is Malaysia Airlines’ overnight service to Sydney, leaving Kuala Lumper at 23:35 each evening to land in Sydney at 10:55 the following morning. That plane turns around to operate MH122, the 13:10 departure from Sydney which lands in Kuala Lumpur at 18:45 that evening. Another well-timed extended afternoon flight that offers the perfect opportunity to maximize the advantages of a premium cabin.

Both these flights are pretty tempting propositions. In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for China Southern told SImple Flying that the A380 flights were added to accommodate extra demand during a peak holiday travel period. At the time of publication, Malaysia Airlines had not responded to a request for comment.

 The schedule information in this article was originally published by Routes Online.