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Qantas has performed its final scheduled passenger service from Melbourne on its Airbus A380 fleet, marking the end of an era – and reduced booking options for premium passengers.
The plane, VH-OQH, departed Melbourne at 11:14am on Saturday, 24 October, headed for Los Angeles International Airport in California, USA. Its return leg sent the plane back to Sydney, where it will continue to operate between the Harbour City and Singapore.
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While the airline had been consistently using its A380s to connect Melbourne and LA, Qantas has now officially made the switch to its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet for this service.
The move means that passengers can no longer opt for – or upgrade to – a First Class ticket between the Victorian capital and LAX.
It appears the decision was largely made off the back of reduced economy bookings on the route, which no longer justified utilising the 485-seat superjumbo on this corridor. Qantas said the decision was not based on the airline’s plan to retire its entire A380 fleet by mid-2028.
In August, Qantas announced that it is bringing forward the superjumbos’ retirement, which had been planned for the early 2030s, as it holds talks with Boeing and Airbus about converting around 20 existing purchase right options to firm orders from 2030. The retirement was accelerated by around four years, from circa 2032 to 2028.
The A380-shaped gaps in its long-haul network will ultimately be filled by the Dreamliner and the highly specialised ultra-long-haul Airbus A350-1000.
Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson acknowledged at the time that the airline’s A380 fleet played “such an important role” in the airline.
“So that aircraft has been incredibly valuable to the group and much loved across the group, and also with customers.”
However, she added that the plane is “an older aircraft, and so the cost of those aircraft over time will increase in terms of maintenance”.
Speaking at the release of Qantas’ FY2025–26 results, Hudson said these new fleet options are “highly capable aircraft” but noted that they are also “more premium seat-dense as well, compared to the A380”.
“That’s a really important part of our strategy to put the right aircraft on the right route with the right configuration. These aircraft will give us way more flexibility than having A380s that have a really large economy cabin,” she said.
Thus, between now and the retirement, A380 operations will be largely focused in Sydney, where crew and engineers can be consolidated.
Qantas returned the last of its A380s, VH-OQC, to service late last year and now has 10 operating superjumbos of its original 12, with VH-OQE and VH-OQF scrapped. The airline initially ordered 20 but scaled back its purchase in the mid-2010s due to cost.
Its first A380, VH-OQA “Nancy-Bird Walton”, entered service in 2008.
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