Qantas looks set to bring back its first Airbus A380 next week, as it begins preparations to use the A380 for regular international passenger flights once again. The announcement that the aircraft will return is quite a memorable one, as the Australian carrier was previously of the belief there would not be a requirement for the A380 in its international route network until 2023 or 2024.
Qantas’ first of twelve Airbus A320-800s will return to Sydney next Tuesday, November 9th, 2021. The A380 registered VH-OQB is currently parked at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and will ferry from there to Qantas’ headquarters at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD) where it will be met at Hangar 96.
The return of the Airbus A380 also demonstrates just how quickly international travel demand has bounced back, since Australia’s international borders were reopened on the 1st of November 2021. Demand for international travel is forecasted to grow over the coming months, which has possibly forced Qantas to bring back a couple of its A380s, following the retirements of all of its Boeing 747s.
Once the aircraft has arrived in Australia, it will be used to retrain and recertify many of the company’s engineers, cabin and flight crews, who have probably not worked on or flown the aircraft in over 18 months. By early-2022, VH-OQB will be joined by a second Airbus A380-800 ahead of the re-launch of the carrier’s A380 services between Sydney and Los Angeles on the 27th of March 2022.
From November 2022, the Australian carrier is planning on using the Airbus A380 which will take over the airline’s flagship “Kangaroo Route” QF1/QF2 from Sydney (SYD) to London-Heathrow (LHR). However, the carrier’s Airbus A380 fleet will be shrinking slightly and will drop from twelve to ten aircraft. According to Qantas, these two Airbus A380 aircraft are due for early retirement as the airline renders them “surplus to demand.”
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Source: https://aeronewsx.com/first-qantas-airbus-a380-to-return-to-australia-next-week/
