Australia’s Qantas flew an Airbus A380 from Melbourne to Sydney on Friday to help cope with huge demand for air travel during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
The double-decker superjumbo, which is typically used for long-haul international flights, traveled about 540 miles — a similar distance as Boston to Pittsburgh.
Its 485 passengers were originally booked on three separate flights operated by the narrow-body Boeing 737.
But a severe-storm forecast limited flights into Sydney airport, Qantas said in a press release.
Coupled with “incredibly high demand” for flights into the city because of Swift’s tour, Qantas said, it decided to operate a special flight to transport the passengers.
The airline said the A380 passengers were initially booked on flights that suggested they weren’t traveling for the concert because they were later in the day.
But because so many people were traveling to see Swift, it would be difficult to find seats for them on other flights.
More than 600,000 people saw Swift perform at four shows in Sydney and another three in Melbourne. Her last show is on Monday night.
Qantas usually flies the enormous jet only to destinations such as Los Angeles, London, and Singapore, but it also has one on standby.
After departing late, Flight 7168 was in the air for only about an hour, per data from Flightradar24. It flew 13 hours to Los Angeles the following day.
Swift’s tour has been huge for local economies. In Cardiff, Wales — where she’s not due to perform until June — hotel rooms are already going for $230 more than usual, according to the analytics firm Lighthouse.
And in Warsaw, Poland, demand for short-term rentals was up 2,020% year-over-year, the vacation-rental data firm AirDNA found.
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