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Qantas’ final A380 has returned home after almost six years in storage, during which it saw the largest maintenance check in the Flying Kangaroo’s history.
VH-OQC “Paul McGinness”, which was mothballed in 2020 along with the rest of Qantas’ A380 fleet during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, touched down in Sydney at 8:30am on Friday, having been in Abu Dhabi undergoing maintenance and refurbishments since 2021.
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The superjumbo’s return brings all 10 of Qantas’ operational A380s back to the skies, and comes after extensive maintenance and a full cabin refresh to bring it in line with the rest of the Flying Kangaroo’s A380 fleet.
It will allow daily services on the Sydney–Dallas route from 1 January, before which it will serve as an operational spare over the holiday period.
According to Cam Wallace, chief executive of Qantas International, the A380s last year carried more than 1 million passengers on Qantas’ international network, and bringing VH-OQC back into service after six years was “no small feat”.
“The return of our final A380 means we can offer even more seats on popular long-haul routes to destinations like Dallas, Singapore and Johannesburg,” he said.
“Teams of engineers around the globe came together to complete more than 100,000 hours of work to prepare the aircraft for flying again, from extensive checks to heavy maintenance, landing gear replacement, a full cabin refresh and assessment flying, with parts shipped by land, sea and sky”.
“When this aircraft lands today it will have been nearly 2,000 days since it last touched Australian soil, and we’re proud to return it to the skies.”
In June 2020, the Qantas Group announced it would ground 100 aircraft for up to 12 months, including most of its international fleet.
The business said then there was “significant uncertainty” as to when flying levels would support the return of the A380, and revealed it would defer deliveries of A321neo and 787-9 aircraft.
Since then, 10 of the A380s, VH-OQA, VH-OQB, VH-OQD, VH-OQH, VH-OQK, VH-OQJ, VH-OQG, VH-OQL, VH-OQI, and now VH-OQC, have returned to service, while VH-OQE and VH-OQF were scrapped.
Qantas plans to retire its A380 fleet starting in the 2032 financial year, to be replaced with newer, smaller and more efficient A350s.
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