On 7 February 2019, Qantas announced that it is giving up Airbus A380 aircraft order. The decision was made following the discussion with Airbus officials.
These are 8 aircraft, which were part of an order placed in 2006, which totaled 20 aircraft.
At this moment, the Airbus A380 project remains uncertain. More and more airlines are giving up this type of aircraft. In March 2018, Virgin Atlantic gave up its order. And earlier this year, Airbus deleted an order for 10 aircraft from the list, which was assigned to an anonymous customer.
Airbus still loses command of A380 aircraft
Since the advent of the Airbus A380 project and until now, Airbus has received orders for 321 units. Of these, 234 aircraft were delivered, and the rest of 87 were to be delivered.
Qantas was the 3 global customer, receiving Airbus A380 after Singapore Airlines and Emirates.
The first Airbus A380 Qantas, indicative of VH-OQA, arrived in Sydney on September 21 2008. And the last A380, indicative of VH-OQL, was delivered in December 2011.
Qantas introduced the first A380 on the Melbourne-Los Angeles route from October 20 to 2008. And the network of flights operated by A380 has expanded, including the Sydney-Los Angeles, Sydney-Singapore-London and Melbourne-Singapore-London routes.
Airbus A380 has helped optimize long-haul flights by establishing new non-stop direct routes, such as Sydney-Dallas / Fort Worth. Initially, this route was operated by Boeing 747-400ER aircraft on the Sydney-Dallas / Fort Worth-Brisbane-Sydney route.
Qantas will choose between A350 and B777X for the Sunrise project
Although the Qantas air carrier is giving up the 8 A380 aircraft, the Sunrise project will not be affected. The long-haul fleet will be complemented by the new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. At the same time, Qantas is considering A350 and Boeing 777X.
Airbus A380 is the largest passenger plane in the world. Although it has been designed to carry up to 800 passengers in a single class, A380 is no longer the focus of airlines.
The small number of airports approved for A380, but also the high cost of kerosene, made A380 an "uninteresting" aircraft. More and more air carriers are interested in widebody aircraft with 2 engines for long-haul flights, to the detriment of those with 4 engines.