Although the new strain of Covid-19 generated great uncertainty about the consequences it would have on aviation and even caused several flight cancellations due to the contagions, this seemed not to worry a company that this Tuesday, January 11, but the world’s largest passenger transport aircraft, the Airbus A380, back into operation.
While the airline is based in Australia, one of the countries that was most severe in imposing travel restrictions to contain the contagion, something that had a strong impact on the airline, Qantas decided to go ahead with its plan to use the large double-decker aircraft again.
According to RadarBox tracking, Qantas’ A380 return flight was QF11:
Back in the air! @Qantas is resuming A380 operations today. ✈️
Track #QF11 from #SYD to #LAX on #RadarBox: https://t.co/R8xYr5ibXr#Airbus #A380 #Aviation #Sydney #Qantas https://t.co/ppQVcXyS5J pic.twitter.com/k03gRj4w6y
— RadarBox (@RadarBoxCom) January 11, 2022
The aircraft, registration VH-OQB, departed Sydney and, during the afternoon of January 11, flew over the Pacific Ocean on a nearly 13-hour journey to Los Angeles, USA:
According to Australian Aviation, the aircraft had been out of commercial operation for more than 650 days, since March 23, 2020, due to the Covid-19 crisis, and in recent days operated frequently around Sydney for maintenance testing and crew rehabilitation.
Getting the unit ready after being in storage for so long included changing all 22 wheels and 16 brakes, as well as all the emergency equipment on board. Its stowage was in Los Angeles, USA, and the transfer back to Australia took place last November 2021.
Qantas’ previous forecast was that there would not be demand until April 2022 to re-employ the huge aircraft on its flights, however, the recovery of international travel was faster than expected, which caused everything to be brought forward to early this year.
As reported by our partner Aeroin, Qantas this week flew a second Airbus A380 out of Los Angeles to Sydney. It is VH-OQD, which departed last Saturday, January 8.
Previously, on January 6, it was captured landing after what amounted to a test flight, as seen in the following video:
It is worth to notice that while the Qantas Airbus A380 was being searched by RadarBox on January 11, 42 other aircraft of the same model from Emirates, British Airways, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, and China Southern Airlines were operating around the world:
