Qantas A380

For Qantas, the arrival of its first superjumbo Airbus A380 in November 2008 marked a changing of the guard, not only in terms of fleet modernisation. A new chief executive was about to take the helm and hopes were high a new era in air travel was beginning. Did the world’s largest commercial jet live up to the hype? The answer was, well, yes… and no.

In Toulouse, France on September 19 2008, as then Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon took delivery of the carrier’s first Airbus A380 – some two years later than initially planned – there was no missing the euphoria in his voice. The jet symbolised a new era of travel for Qantas, he declared. “No other airline has flown as far as Qantas for as long as Qantas, so we know very well the value of a well-designed inflight product for long-haul flights. The A380, with its extra space, new materials and advanced technology, has given us the ideal platform to reinvent the inflight experience.”

Dixon was about to step down as the airline’s chief, handing over to Alan Joyce in November that year, and the chief-executive-in-waiting was just as optimistic. “Taking delivery of the first of our A380s is an important occasion for us. It is both a culmination – following years of meticulous design development – and a beginning, with the A380 leading us into a new chapter in the story of Qantas,” said Joyce.