Qantas and the A300?

[Zac M]

I have vague memories of doing Sydney to OOL when I was about 4 years old in one of there:
http://www.airliners.net/search/phot...gsearch=vh-TAA

In the above link there are may pictures of VH-TAA in Qantas livery.

[Jack B]

Did QF or TN operate them in F/J/Y or J/Y config?

[Gareth U]

TAA was the first to introduce domestic C class in Australia and I believe the A300s were delivered as three class. Business was, put simply, economy seats with first class legroom and service. There was a fixed bulkhead between C an Y. First class was forward of doors 2. See YouTube link below for an early advertisement.

TAA Ad from early 80s

TAA Business Ad showing A300 cabin

When Ansett finally introduced business class (it resisted for longer than you would think!) they made business class 2 abreast, with wider seats than economy class. I think this was with the introduction of the A320 Skystar in 1989 and they called it 'Executive' (first was 'Premier'). On the narrowbodies, this involved the familiar converter seats. I do not know if they were not available on widebodies at the time, though Lufthansa later had them on their Euro A300-600s. Ansett and Australian then had fixed J (the identifier for 'premium' business) seating on their widebodies and converter seats on narrowbodies. First had fixed seating on narrowbodies by then. On the A300 there was two rows of first class and three of business class in the same cabin with no bulkhead. Ansett had this also on their 762s. There was a small divider mounted on the top of the last row of first class (sometimes only one row), on Ansett at least. In the combined F/J cabin, Ansett had a different model of seats for first class as opposed to business, not sure about Australian.

TAA's A300 delivery configuration was 30/56/143. Ansett's 762s were 48/153 (no business class).

Around 1990-91, first class was sold at business fares and business at full economy fares (renaming business as 'Club'). Not sure of the date, but Qantas was the first to scrap domestic first class and offer an upgraded business product. Ansett followed in 1997.

Australian Ad for new cabin/fare structure

[Mike W]

Great finds Gareth. I only moved to Australia in '96 so I'm totally ignorant of TAA and it's place in Aviation History. I enjoyed the ads... and the haircuts, ha ha.

[Grahame Hutchison]

1985 TAA Cargo ad for the A300 featuring VH-TAB http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN3tVpX0Mco

I forgot about this one.

[Jack B]

Those TAA J Class seats reminded me of the new J class on QF's latest Domestic A330's

[Gareth U]

The following diagram shows the original configuration and the final configuration of the aircrafts in question.

TNQF AB4 Config.jpg

This image is taken from Airliners in Australian Service, Volume 1, by Eric Allen. Great reference book!

[Jack B]

Thanks for that scan Gareth! You're always the best source with all things cabin and cabin crew.