And then there were 10: Qantas brings its final Airbus A380 back from storage
November 26, 2025
Australian airline Qantas is to return its last parked Airbus A380 superjumbo from long-term storage and return it to service within days.
According to reporting at Aero News Pacific, Qantas CEO Cam Wallace confirmed the A380’s return at the FACTS conference in Sydney this week. He said that VH-OQC, currently in Abu Dhabi, would fly back to Australia ‘next week,’ to be used as an ‘operational spare’ alongside the airline’s nine other superjumbos.
The aircraft last flew a commercial service for the airline in 2020 and has faced an extended period of storage, first in the US, followed by a spell in the Middle East.
However, with demand for Qantas’s international services increasing and a shortage of long-haul aircraft, the plane will once again take up its place within the airline’s widebody fleet.
Read more: Flying the Airbus A380 in economy class
Qantas and its Airbus A380 fleet
VH-OQC is the last of 12 Airbus A380s that Qantas sent into storage in 2020 due to the pandemic. With the superjumbo surplus to requirements, the airline sent each aircraft to a long-term aircraft storage facility in Victorville (VCV), California
At the time, and like many airlines, Qantas said it was unsure whether the A380 would ever fly again, and whether the days of ultra-high capacity aircraft were over.
Sadly, two of those aircraft (VH-OGE and VH-OGF) were parted out in Victorville to provide the rest of the fleet with a pool of spare parts.
However, since early 2022, the remaining 10 A380s have been slowly returning to Qantas service, with the first aircraft, VH-OQB, resuming commercial flights on 11 January 2022. Another eight A380s have followed since, leaving just VH-OQC (msn 022) in storage, awaiting its turn to return to service.
The airline operates its A380s in a four-class configuration. This includes 14 first class seats, 70 in business class, 60 in premium economy and 341 in economy, giving a total capacity of 485 passengers.
The airline currently flies its A380s on routes from Sydney to London (LHR), Singapore (SIN), Los Angeles (LAX), Dallas Fort Worth (DFW), and Johannesburg (JNB).
VH-OQC set to return to Australia
VH-OQC was the third A380 to be delivered to Qantas in December 2008. It flew with the carrier until July 2020, when it was ferried to Victorville for storage.
However, since June 2021, it has been at Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport (AUH) under the care of Etihad Engineering.
Having undergone return-to-service checks, the aircraft is planned to be back in Sydney during the week commencing 1 December.
This will be the first time that Qantas has had all ten of its serviceable A380s flying on its behalf since the pandemic.
The A380’s return has been delayed
While demand for international travel has soared, Qantas has been hamstrung in returning its A380s to service by a lack of MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facilities worldwide that could handle such a large and complex aircraft.
While the airline had originally hoped to have all ten of its serviceable aircraft back in service by the end of 2024, logistical issues have delayed that plan.
Since the pandemic, slots at MRO facilities have been highly sought after as airlines retain older aircraft for longer to meet the rise in demand. Equally, the need for MRO slots is also driven by supply chain shortages, which are delaying the deliveries of new aircraft to airlines.
This has resulted in airlines retaining aircraft rather than retiring them, with older aircraft requiring more maintenance-intensive inputs.
Compounding the issue of preparing the Qantas A380s for a service return has been the airline’s decision to reconfigure and update the cabin interiors.
However, with the last of the aircraft now due to re-enter service imminently, this period of uncertainty seems to be drawing to a close, with all ten aircraft flying on behalf of the airline from next week.
Qantas’ A380s to remain in service
With newly refreshed interiors and high customer appeal, the A380 is likely to remain in the Qantas fleet for many years to come. The airline says it hopes to fly the superjumbo into the 2030s.
The retention of these aircraft, now with an average fleet age of 16.2 years, offers the airline potential that no other type can. Its high-capacity 485-seat configuration makes it ideal for key international routes to the UK, the US and South Africa.
Equally, they are extremely useful for operating high-density routes to airports which are slot-constrained, such as London Heathrow, where more flights by smaller aircraft types are simply not an option.
At the time of writing, VH-OQC remains on the ground in Abu Dhabi but is expected to operate a ferry flight back to Sydney in the coming days. According to Aero South Pacific, with VH-OQC being one of the carrier’s older A380s, it will be retained as an operational spare to step in for the airline’s other A380s when technical circumstances dictate.
Qantas’s announcement came just a day after another A380 operator, Etihad Airways, said it would be returning its last A380 to commercial service, several years after it was placed in storage. The airline will use the aircraft to operate flights to Tokyo from June 2026.
Featured image: Qantas
