The Airbus A380 has been a tricky issue for all airlines that took delivery of the aircraft type, except Emirates. All airlines have had some issues making the economics of this giant plane work in their favour. One of these airlines is Australia’s flag carrier Qantas.
The Qantas A380 Relationship
The Quantas A380 relationship is a love-hate one. The airline hasn’t been able to harness the full potential of the aircraft as Emirates has, but it definitely has found a better use for it in its operations when compared to other carriers, such as British Airways, Lufthansa or Qatar Airways.
The Australian flag carrier has found a place for the huge jet on some of its busiest long range routes. However they have been able to make it work only on a handful of destinations.
Qantas at the moment owns 12 Airbus A380s, however 5 of these are still in storage. Specifically registrations:
- VH-OQA
- VH-OQC
- VH-OQE
- VH-OQF
- VH-OQI
These planes although passenger traffic is on the rise have still not been put back into service, nor do we have any clue to wether they ever will and when they will.
It is quite clear, from orders placed with Boeing and Airbus that the Australian airline is focusing its efforts and attention on more fuel efficient twin-jets. So I don’t think the A380s will be here in the long term.
Where do The Qantas Airbus A380s Fly?
As mentioned above Qantas deploys its Airbus A380s only to a handful of destinations. First of all we must note as, at the moment, the Qantas A380 operates only out of Sydney (SYD). In particular they send the aircraft type to their flagship routes such as:
Image GCmap.com
The Aircraft’s Configuration
Qantas has its Airbus A380 configured with 2 different cabin layouts. The most common Qantas A380 cabin configuration features:
- 14 First Class Seats
- 70 Business Class Seats
- 60 Premium Economy Class Seats
- 341 Economy Class Seats
This cabin layout is present on planes that regularly fly to:
- Singapore (SIN) – QF1
- London (LHR) – QF1
- Los Angeles (LAX) – QF11
The other configuration is available is featured on only 1 currently active A380: VH-OQA. This layout Features less premium economy seats and a portion of economy seats on the upper deck.
- 14 First Class Seats
- 64 Business Class Seats
- 35 Premium Economy Class Seats
- 371 Economy Class Seats
