Qantas to mothball all Airbus A380s until at least 2023

I'm surprised it is cheaper to fly them to Mojave for storage than to Alice Springs. I get they are a bit tight for space currently at Alice, but thought I read somewhere that they could increase capacity very quickly if required.

I would have thought storing them in Alice would be better than flying to California to store them.

And I'll be mothballing my QFF card, and firing up the Emirates Skywards instead (or whoever keeps flying the A380).

I always base my international flying provider based on the highest comfort ad services first, hence those flying an A380 to my destination get first byte of my dollars.

Woomera has a strip that could easily handlen an A380. There's plenty of dry flat land, a railway and a major highway at the front door, plenty of vacant accommodation, an airport with flights to Adelaide every few hours just 70km away, a dry climate and most importantly, plenty of security. Why send the fleet to the Mohave?

Travel onboard the A380 is just so superior to alternatives and I will be now be looking at Emirates for our regular trips to Switzerland & UK particularly as EK will be introducing PE next year. I hope that demand will allow QF to recommence A380 ops. at least with the 6 refurbished examples.

A sad day for passengers. It's all about survival for Qantas but the A380 is/was simply unsurpassed experience wise. Can anyone clarify if it is the newest 6 that are refurbed or a mix?.....if its a mix doesn't make sense they'd refurb the older iterations as I understand some had issues.

Just checked the floor plans VH-OQA,B,C,D,E,F,G,I,L ARE showing 14F 64B 35PE 371E, with the Sky bed Layout

VH-OAH,J,K ARE SHOWING 14F 70B 60PE 341E, WITH the newer stagger business seats,

So it looks like the newer units got the upgrade. Makes sense if they are scrapping the older ones.

Suggesting I and L are marked as the probably next to be upgraded. That would be 5 with new fit out. Wonder if G would get an upgrade as that would be 6.

Qantas can hype up the 787 and even the A350 all they want but they need to realise neither will ever be the A380. The A380 is where passengers want to be for long and ultra long haul. I know it needs to be viable but I wouldn't be too hasty in ditching the fleet. I concur that I will always choose Emirates over Qantas if they have the A380 in service and Qantas does not(of course on QF paper). Even Qatar if they bring theirs back.

Maybe if London and LA aren't in a position to get QF A380 operations, Tokyo will be.

Reopen QF21/22 and SYD-NRT (HND will only accept A380s during the overnight hours, only 1 on the ground at a time and they can't be there during the day slot hours).

If they stored them at Alice Springs they would have to make them airworthy again just to fly them to Mohave for scrapping.

Such sad news. My favourite aircraft as a long haul passenger. I loved the so-called ‘Emerald City‘ at the front of the upper deck.... Just so quiet and smooth.

Is Qantas just gonna standardize its widebody fleet to 787s?

But I am concerned that Qantas' shine as Australia's flag carrier may not resonate with a product that doesn't look decent enough to compete with others. Granted, Qantas new Economy is kinda luxurious but Thompson Vantage XL?

Thatt's the same product as China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines, SAS etc who all debuted their products back in the earlier 2010s. This is in competition with QSuites, SQ fugly but okay "lar" seats, EK pastel but at least bed is comfortable... All this dark coloring is not seen in good light by Asian customers who, if Qantas wakes up, is actually their biggest customers.

Can I say I never liked Qantas safety video. It is too Australian, for customers who are primarily not actually Australian. I get butterflies when United's vid flashes a moment of Singapore's skyline. To me, the customer it means I as a Singaporean, feel special.

My problem is that Qantas seriously tries too hard to be Australian when it comes off as unauthentic.

You don't need to CGI stuff and try to show parts of Australia so desperately.

Keep it simple, a la Delta, and speak with that cheerful accent that communicates Australia to one and all. English.

Ansett Australia's uniform fully embued Australia too. Qantas needs... a proper luxury brand designer (maybe Oroton)? Cos they seriously never got the uniform right cos they never bothered to tailor it. It's the little finer touches that matter, and Qantas lacks sophistication and finess. I don't understand why Jetstar branding and uniform comes off as so much more Australian and classier. I'm sorry ladies, the uniforms makes you look tired soccer moms. I really think the designers were friggin lazy.

I also don't like the tail and the use of kangaroo anymore. They don't look like kangarros to me. From far they look like Cathay Dragon and Turkish Airlines or a red Lufthansa.

Sorry about the rant but Qantas needs to free itself from its traditions and brand itself better.

And communicating Australia is more important than Nancy Bird Ansett or Longreach. Australia has the population of Beijing. It is not that significant. The Mandarin names are messed up and do not convey that it is an Australia airline. In fact they actually become 快达航空 as in... Express Airlines.

No major loss in Business. A380 Business was crap, droopy seats, 2-2-2 on most aircraft. 787 and 330 into Asia much better. Putting in the new seats took too long, are still not on all.

Give me the A380 anytime over 787 when in economy though.

My first post today - So lazy of me waiting until I have just retired to become active although I have been following the platform for years. I have to say that I loved flying the Qantas A380 for many years primarily to Europe via LHR with the occasional trip to USA. My god Levinn there doesn't seem to be much about Qantas that you like? I don't agree with the less than authentic Australian feel - I must say that whenever I was returning from a tedious business trip I really looked forward to my champers in the Qantas business class J - Felt I was on my way home! Sure not every flight was great, often depending on the crew but I found the comfort level (and wine selection!) generally at least as good as Emirates and Etihad. I will be very interested to see how long it takes for demand levels to increase enough to warrant the recommissioning of the A380's. My focus has changed a bit I guess now concentrating on leisure rather than business travel. I had to cancel a RTW classic reward booking utilising 2 Qantas A380 legs and now my focus is on the complete travel experience rather than getting from A to B as quickly, economically and as comfortably as possible. I can see myself waiting until I can travel on the A380 again (preferrably Qantas but, if not, Emirates, Qatar or Etihad). That, together with being able to enjoy the usual service levels both in the lounges and on board, I think will mean that I will be looking at domestic only until late 2022 or early 2023.

I saw QF29 flying into Hong Kong yesterday, the usual A330. I guess the A380s are not very suitable for freight-only operations.

This means there will no longer be a first class product on Qantas until 2023. What will happen to the first lounges I wonder.

There are some of us that flatly DON'T buy this "mothball the A380 for 3 years". I suspect that they will be back within 18 months at the very latest.

What Alan Joyce needs to be aware of is a bill making passage through the US Congress which sets out specific and enforceable issues for safe distancing within aircraft flying into, throough and out of US air space. Further, as of today there is significant talk that a selection of vaccines will be available within 6-12 months. In particular, President Carrot-top is making noises about a 6 month timeline, whilst big pharma are talking a slightly more realistic timeframe of 9-12.

If this comes to fruition and the USA becomes a viable destination within the next 12-15 months, QF management may have to re-think their idea of leaving middle seats free and taking an unpalatable hit on 65% loads. After all, with the DFW-SYD A380 service pre-COVID19, it was de-rigeur to block >100 seats during much of the year due to weather.

Frankly, QF doesn't have sufficient B787-9's to sustain or even revive international routes from SYD, MEL, PER and BNE as virus numbers o/s begin to retreat.

Further, whilst Australians have been compliant in lockdown for the past 3 months, I doubt strongly that those same people will sit back and accept no international service from QF for the next 12 months when competitors are to be flying from October / November this year. Despite the nay-sayers alluding to 'no business', there is an acknowledged high backlog of travel demand which even Alan Joyce admits. That will include international - in what ever form it takes.

Please Alan - bring back the refurbed A380. Can't wait. They are so good. Even the non-refurbed Business in the A380 is fine, but the refurb is fabulous! Absolutely fabulous - layout, space, comfort 1-2-1. Absolutely idea.

Prestige and Profit, that's what will deliver a vaccine/'s from a US pharma/'s most likely by end of 2020, let's face it Armstrong walked on the moon 51 years ago. Manufacture/ Distribution of the vaccine worldwide, time related just as I'm sure a priority list will be established. The 3 years that Joyce is suggesting possibly worst case scenario however I would anticipate March 2022, Services like SYD-LAX, BNE- LAX and SYD-DFW to return to around 70% of pre-avoidablevirus numbers. the SYD-JNB and SYD-SCL would follow., as for the A380, I see 6 culled, and maybe adding a few more 787-9. " If it ain't Boeing I ain't going "