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Qantas has restarted A380 flights from Melbourne for the first time post-COVID.
Australian Aviation’s Victor Pody was in the Victorian capital to capture the moment the Super Jumbo, VH-OQL, landed at 7:14am on 17 June.
It’s now regularly flying between Melbourne and LAX as QF93 and 94.
Qantas grounded its entire fleet of 12 A380s during the pandemic, with most sent to the notorious Southern California Logistics Airport, better known as Victorville.
The business has been slowly returning them to commercial flying, with two permanently decommissioned.
Many commentators initially thought the giant aircraft would suffer the same fate as its Boeing 747s, which were dispensed with in 2020.
However, reduced international capacity post-pandemic has seen the aircraft’s economies of scale give Airbus a new lease of life for the Flying Kangaroo.
Qantas now has seven A380s back flying commercially: VH-OQB, VH-OQD, VH-OQH, VH-OQK, VH-OQJ, VH-OQG, and VH-OQL.
Of the rest, VH-OQC, VH-OQA and VH-OQI are currently in Abu Dhabi receiving a cabin upgrade.
VH-OQL was the seventh A380 to return to service, initially flying between Sydney and Hong Kong and also being used to mitigate the effects of a strike.
It comes weeks after Qantas’s CEO-in-waiting, Vanessa Hudson, hinted the airline’s A380s would be retired within the next 10 years.
Speaking at IATA’s AGM in Istanbul, Hudson said, “ultimately the A380 fleet” would be replaced over the next decade.
She was talking about plans to sell 24 international aircraft, arguing that market conditions suggested that the “one thing we are hearing from speaking to the manufacturers and other airlines is there is significant demand for widebodies”.
Qantas is in the middle of a huge fleet renewal program that will see it completely overall most of its domestic aircraft, largely replacing its ageing Boeing 737s and 717s with next-generation aircraft.
It currently has an order with Airbus for 29 A220-300s and 20 of the longer-range A321XLRs. It significantly has the potential to purchase 85 more Airbus aircraft in total through to 2034.
In addition to its domestic overhaul, Qantas is also awaiting 12 A350-1000s that will fly Project Sunrise ultra-long-haul flights from London and New York to Sydney and Melbourne, and one more 787 Dreamliner from Boeing.
Australian Aviation exclusively revealed in April how the second and final Qantas A380 was dismantled at the Victorville desert boneyard.
A photo taken by aviation photographer Andrew Hunt showed previously scrapped VH-OQF alongside another super jumbo once owned by the Flying Kangaroo, certainly VH-OQE.
While its registration couldn’t be verified, all other Qantas A380s have now left California and are either in service or being upgraded in Abu Dhabi.
