VH-OQF departs for Sydney and Singapore operating QF31 on November 27. (Andrew McLaughlin)
Qantas has returned the Airbus A380 to service three weeks after the QF32 catastrophic engine failure, with flight QF31 from Sydney to London via Singapore departing on late Saturday afternoon.
“It’s great that we can reintroduce the aircraft,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said at Sydney Airport before the flight’s departure. “We are 100 per cent comfortable with the operation of the aircraft.”
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In a public display of confidence in the aircraft, Joyce travelled on the A380, VH-OQF, as far as Singapore.
Of the six Qantas A380s in service in the time of the QF32 incident, Qantas is returning VH-OQF and VH-OQE into service, both of which had been stranded in Los Angeles at the time of the grounding. Two of VH-OQF’s Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines were replaced prior to its return to Sydney, one an overhauled engine from Rolls-Royce, the second taken from another Qantas A380.
With two new A380s scheduled to be delivered to the airline before the end of the year, Qantas is confident that it will have at least four A380s in service for Christmas.
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