Qantas is getting a “spare” A380
The last red-tailed superjumbo is on its way home...
By David Flynn, November 25 2025
Executive Traveller exclusive
Almost six years since Qantas was forced to stand down its entire fleet of Airbus A380s when the global pandemic hit in March 2020, the last of the mighty double-decker jets is on the way home.
But it won’t immediately begin carrying passengers on the airline’s premium international routes.
Instead, Qantas will keep this particular superjumbo (registration VH-OQC) sitting on standby, in case one of its siblings is grounded by technical issues – a scenario which could leave some 480 passengers stranded.
“It’ll be an operational spare,” Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace tells Executive Traveller.
“We’ll fly it from time to time, but generally it’ll be a spare, providing operational coverage for resilience,” Wallace remarked on the sidelines of the FACTS travel conference in Sydney today.
“That’s investing in the customer, it underpins our on-time performance and our (focus on) cancellation and completion rates.”
Each returning A380 sports a refreshed cabin layout, which includes the same business class and premium economy seats as the Boeing 787, along with a fresh take on the upper-deck inflight lounge.
The new business class seats and inflight lounge are highlights of the revamped A380s.
Considered the pride of the fleet since it first took wing in 2008, the Qantas A380s now fly on flagship routes such as Sydney-Singapore-London, and Sydney and Melbourne to Los Angeles, as well as to Dallas Fort Worth and Johannesburg.
However, only ten of the 12 jets remain on the books: the other two were dismantled for spare parts following Airbus’ decision in 2019 to cease A380 production.
Qantas fast-tracked the return of its first Airbus A380 in November 2021 as the pandemic subsided and international travel resumed, and initially hoped to “reactivate all of the A380s” by 2024.
That stretched into 2025 as the airline continued to suffer from the same supply chain delays and related issues as other carriers trying to restore their fleets to full strength.
Qantas expects to continue flying the A380s to early in the next decade, when they’ll be retired in favour of the new Airbus A350-1000.
Also read: How the A380 superjumbo soared, then slumped
22 May 2011
Total posts 93
Do they mean the extra aircraft will be used to enable an operational spare or literally this particular aircraft is the standby aircraft? Seems a better choice to add buffer overall rather than have the rest of the fleet rather than having this newly renovated aircraft sitting there on standby? How often do they expect that the a380 is broken down?
I would have thought having it rotate on a single route out of a secondary city like Brisbane would have been a good PR opportunity rather than an op spare.
14 Jan 2022
Total posts 1
Completely agree with you.
The Brisbane -Singapore route is in desperate need of a better aircraft. They could swap it out for the hideous A330 and have that as the back up aircraft.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Oct 2011
Total posts 488
Unfortunately, the A380s have a rather frequent history of developing technical problems that render them unfit for service until the fault is fixed. And given that QF has only a small number of A380s, that causes havoc with the schedules. It does make sense to have one on standby to cover those far-from-rare incidents. This aircraft will be used quite frequently.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
14 Jan 2015
Total posts 45
Very good news - for the airline and the passengers !
20 Sep 2017
Total posts 13
Looking at the Qantas timetable next October and November, it looks like a A380 will be used on QF 81 and 82 from Sydney to Singapore which I think is not happening this year. So, I guess the spare plane will only be for a little while and then they will all be working hard.
If the plan is to have one A 380 sitting on the ground, I don't think it will be one plane, but they will swap them in and out on a daily basis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
05 Oct 2016
Total posts 163
This is actually a sensible decision for a change. I believe that A380 QF flights are regularly cancelled or seriously delayed due technical issues. I've watched this a few times recently, as well as been caught out by it... On the other hand I'm guessing the chance the 'spare' will always be in the right place is low.... but for e.g. it would mean if say a flight LAX to SYD was cancelled, then the spare can still run the next scheduled flight that craft should have done.
03 May 2013
Total posts 711
I can only pray to the gods of flight that the A380 is around a long long time. A superb ultra long haul plane.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 Mar 2015
Total posts 23
my SIN-MEL flight on nov 29 is now a380 (previously a330). no complaints!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Dec 2014
Total posts 8
My partner and I were recently on Oneworld round-world tickets and our first flight from SYD to LAX was cancelled. Fortunately, as Platinum Ones, we were able to get seats on QF11 the following day but still lost a day of our trip. Then, the LHR to SYD flight was also cancelled. We were only informed of this at 4pm on the day of travel when I'd been alerted by a friend that QF1 hadn't departed SYD the day before, so Qantas must've known there'd be no aircraft to fly the return QF2 much sooner. We were put on Emirates that night but had to endure a 15-hour stopover in Dubai. These cancellations have been happening all too frequently, so having a spare A380 as a backup is reassuring.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
11 Feb 2015
Total posts 2
Syd - Hong Kong needs a better aircraft. I have not flown QF as a P1 QFF as Cathy has much better options then the A330 Qantas fly. Qantas A330 should not be flying internationally now, losing so many loyal flyers because of this.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 Jan 2017
Total posts 41
Excuse my ignorance - return from where?
20 Nov 2015
Total posts 607
From Abu Dhabi, where it's been sitting after being refurbished. I think this A380 last flew a passenger-carrying revenue service over four years ago. Amazing!
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