It looks as though A380 lovers shouldn’t expect to fly on the giant of the skies with
Qatar Airways any time soon. According to the carrier’s latest schedule filings, the
aircraft now won’t take to the skies for at least a year’s time. It’s been a tricky
time for the Airbus A380. With the exception of China Southern, which has run the type
throughout, no airlines have been operating the aircraft for passenger services.
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Situation At Qatar Airways.” So without any further ado, Let's begin.
Qatar Airways will not be bringing its A380
aircraft back into service in the near future, stating that “it is not commercially or
environmentally justifiable to operate such a large aircraft in the current market”.
The carrier is now utilizing its full fleet of 30 B787 and 49 A350 long-haul aircraft,
as it continues to rebuild its network following the Covid-19 pandemic, and it said that “benchmark
figures identified that Qatar Airways’ fleet of A350 aircraft consumed 20 tonnes of CO2
less per block hour on certain routes compared to the A380”.
Of late, Qatar Airways has been fairly critical
of the Airbus A380. However, according to the latest schedule analysis from Routesonline,
it won’t fly any time soon. In the meantime, the publication states that other aircraft
with lower capacities will be placed on the A380’s routes. To Frankfurt, London, and
Paris, the Airbus A380 will be substituted by Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Meanwhile, on
its Australian A380 routes such as Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney, the Airbus A350-1000 will
be used. Besides the A380, these are Qatar’s higher-capacity
aircraft. Commenting on the news Al Baker
said: “Qatar Airways Group has a strong record of industry leadership on sustainable
operations. We take our responsibilities to care for the environment seriously and sustainability
is at the forefront of our business planning across the group, this is why we have an average
fleet age of less than five years, one of the youngest in the world. As we rebuild our
network, passengers can rely on us to operate an honest schedule of flights to take them
where they want to go, using the right size aircraft to offer sensible capacity on each
route. As a result, we will not resume flying our fleet of A380 until demand returns to
appropriate levels.”
Unfortunately, it’s also the end of the line for Qatar Airways Airbus A340-600. April
30th marked the carrier's last ever commercial flight for the quad-engine aircraft, operating
QR835 from Bangkok to Doha. Qatar Airways currently operates numerous long-range twin-engine
aircraft including the Airbus A350, Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and Boeing 777 which are more
efficient than the A340. Additionally, Qatar’s cabin products on
the A340 are not up to modern standards as
those on the more modern twin jets. The A340s are currently some of the oldest aircraft
in the fleet, clocking in at an average age of 12.6 years, more than double the average
fleet age. The retirement of the A340 fleet will significantly decrease the average fleet
age overall. According to Airline Watch, the aircraft will be ferried from Doha to Twente
to be dismantled by the Dutch aircraft disassembly company, AELS.
Reusable parts of the aircraft such as engines
and cockpit instruments will be removed and the rest will be recycled. Qatar’s other
4-engine aircraft, the A380, is also scheduled to be retired in the future. Currently, the
airline has slated the retirement of the A380 for 2024, and each aircraft will be retired
when it reaches 10 years old. The A380 is scheduled to be replaced by the
Boeing 777X, which will be easier to fill
and make profitable than the A380. Given the current volatility of the Airbus A380 situation,
anything could happen to Qatar’s A380s now. In a perfect world for A380 lovers, Qatar
would retain aircraft that are yet to reach ten years of age.
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