Australian flag carrier Qantas has returned the Airbus A380 to service. The airline’s first flight of the type since the beginning of the pandemic took place on 11th January with service from Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport to Los Angeles International in California. This marks the first commercial A380 service for the airline since late March 2020.
While this is good news for fans of the world’s largest commercial airliner, Qantas will not be restoring it’s entire fleet of twelve A380s to service just yet, as passenger demand is still yet to fully return amid the current Omicron variant wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
That being said, the reintroduction of the type has been brought forward with the original timeline being set for April 2022. At present, five aircraft are set to return to the skies, whilst two are set to be retired altogether. The Airbus A380 of Qantas is also set to resume the currently suspended Sydney-Singapore-London route in June 2022.
The Qantas A380 fleet is currently undergoing a cabin modernisation, with an update to all classes from Premium Economy to First, with the addition of a new upper deck lounge.
Matt is a Berlin-based writer and reporter for International Flight Network. Originally from London, he has been involved in aviation from a very young age and has a particular focus on aircraft safety, accidents and technical details.
