Qantas Airways Airbus A380 returns to the skies

Qantas Airways Airbus A380 returns to the skies: Qantas Airways expects all of its twelve Airbus A380s to return to the skies by 2024, if international demand returns earlier than expected then the superjumbos can be reactivate within three to six months. A signal of confidence that demand for global air travel will recover and make the superjumbo viable again.

“We think we will reactivate all of the A380s. We spent a lot of money on them,” Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said at a CAPA Live virtual conference Wednesday. “Once demand is there, they’re going to be good aircraft.” Qantas Airways grounded all its A380s in June at California’s arid the Mojave Desert, saying they’d be useless for at least three years.

The fall of the aviation industry during the pandemic left many aircraft to death, therefore many airlines switched to smaller planes. Deutsche Lufthansa AG has warned that its A380s may never fly again and Air France-KLM said last year it would phase its fleet out early. Emirates, the biggest A380 customer, has said its fleet could return next year after vaccines have rolled out globally.

Joyce stuck to a plan to restart almost all of Qantas’s overseas routes from the end of October, Vaccine passports are the only way to restart global travel, he said. Even though Australia’s own vaccination program has been delayed beyond that date.

Qantas preparing 122 flights, New Zealand opens skies for Australia