QANTAS A.380
 

VH OQA is due to depart SYD at 2.40pm today as QFA 6011 ferry flight to AUH. Is this the first 380 to have the cabin alterations and is it being done at AUH or going onto Toulouse???

A380 VH-OQA arrived back in SYD from AUH during the afternoon of 7 March, 2019 as QF6012 and returned to service 2 days later. I'm not sure if the cabin alterations were done during the 42 days it was in AUH but assume so, as AUH has not been previously used by QANTAS for maintenance or repainting.

Has anyone flown in OQA since its return to confirm? I presume that QANTAS will not promote the new interior until a few more A380s have had it installed.

On Friday 15 March, 2019 VH-OQC flew from SYD to AUH for maintenance as QF6011 and if it takes the same time period as OQA wont be back until the last week of April.

I haven’t seen the aircraft nor any official documentation, but it has been said many times in many different places online that OQA was only undergoing heavy maintenance in AUH and that the first batch of cabins will be done in TLS.

A seat map would normally be out if there had been a change.

Thanks for clearing that up, Rowan. We'll await further news.

More information from the QANTAS News Release of 25 August, 2017 on the A380 cabin refurbishment:

VH-OQC returned to SYD this afternoon as QF6010 after maintenance in AUH.

I see that QANTAS is operating QF5 SYD/SIN/LHR on 26 May with A.380 aircraft 22.30/16.20, a stopover in SIN for 4.45 hrs. There is no return flight showing. So is the Aircraft ferrying to TLS for cabin conversion. I did read somewhere that this work may be done in Toulouse?????

Dresden?

Hi Fred, Thanks. I did look at Airbus, Dresden and found there is quite a facility there doing freighter conversions and maintenance. Dennis

I think you will find it heading to AUH for maint, the overhauls in Dresden we’re now expected to start in July according to then CEO of International Alison Webster in Feb.

thanks Mark.

The flight referred to by Dennis looks to be a special flight using the old Frankfurt QF5 flight number but going to Heathrow. As it is posted in the QANTAS timetable, and I presume bookable, where it goes after that is a mystery if the cabin conversions don't start until July. Leaving at 22:30 from Sydney there must be a late one off slot time at Heathrow plus curfew in Sydney to spend nearly 5 hours in Singapore.

There is no reciprocal special flight from Heathrow back to Sydney up to mid August, according to the timetable. If the conversions are being done in Dresden it is a quandary that they are using a flight number that was previously used to fly to Germany. It may just be a coincidence as the QF5/6 flight number has been unused for some years. Maybe it is a one way charter to London coupled with repositioning to Dresden and will return to Sydney empty.

We shall all be watching where it flies to on Monday 27 May, 2019 from Heathrow.

I have noticed that A.380, VH-OQJ is due to ferry from SYD to PUS as QF6021 at 12.50pm today arriving at 21.43. Anyone know what it is doing in Pusan??

Painting

OQE will ops an additional SYD-SIN-LHR on May 28 followed by a positioning flight to DRS presumably for reconfigurations

Hopefully OQE is also getting a repaint soon as she's looking a bit tired!

The work in DRS is cabins, definitely not paint. DRS has been well documented (albeit with some disagreement over the location - various iterations of TLS, HAM and DRS), and a post on another forum last week points to a media release from the FBO in the Philippines about painting a number of A380s for QF, starting this month.

A380 OQJ left on 8 May for Pusan, South Korea where it is being repainted. I'm not aware of where the final A380s (E, H, I) will be repainted.

The last 3 will also visit Pusan...

"During our visit a Korean Air 777-200 was well into its nine-day repainting process. And on the team’s long "to do" list is a major contract inked with Qantas Airways to repaint four of its A380s between May 2019 and November 2020."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...ll/1658500002/

Thanks Nathan for posting the link to the USA Today article. A great find which confirms the notion that interesting snippets of aviation information can be found in all sorts of worldwide publications.

I have put two and two together and wonder if the aircraft operating the QANTAS A380 one off frequent flyers flight from MEL to NRT on 21 October, 2019 will then position to Pusan/Busan, South Korea (PUS) for repainting? It looks to be less than a two hour flight. Taking passengers on the outbound flight also seems to be the method of getting the first A380 to Dresden ex SYD via LHR on 26 May, 2019.

I presume that the return flight from PUS to AUS will be operated empty as the precise date that the repainting will be completed cannot be determined to allow forward bookings.

QANTAS operated the one off SYD to LHR via SIN QF5, A380 flight with VH-OQE departing SYD late on Sunday night. See posts 8 & 13 for further information.

After a late afternoon arrival in LHR on Monday the A380 departed at 19:33 for the 1 hour 36 minute flight to DRS where it will be the first QANTAS A380 to have its cabin refurbishment done.

Does anyone know how long the refurbishment is scheduled to take for each aircraft? The 2017 QANTAS Press Release said that the refurbishment would take until the end of 2020, which if done without much of a break between aircraft would be upwards of a month and a half for each one. Possibly work will be suspended during the December to March peak when QANTAS will use an A380 on QF127/128 to HKG, although the schedule could be operated with 11 aircraft.

A one-time extension of the seasonal QANTAS QF17/18 service from LAX to MCO on 19 January, 2020 & return on 24 January, 2020. The A380 must re-position back to LAX after the outbound flight and onto MCO to operate the return flight five days later.

Source: Routes Online

Is this another one off charter for a well known Pentecostal group , the likes of which Qantas has operated before ? .

Dave C

I see OQA went tech at LAX last night and QF94 was cancelled. Interesting that they in turn cancelled QF93 back to LAX this morning and opted to turn OQF back around and head back to SIN. Must mean the load factor was higher to SIN than LAX today?

There may have been greater flexibility and more options to transfer passengers to SYD to fly on QF11, or to BRI to fly on QF15 as there was plenty of notice to arrange this after QF94 was cancelled.

In addition, any further passengers could be transferred today to SYD to fly on QF73 to SFO and transfer to LAX or the later QF49 from MEL to SFO and transfer to LAX.

OQG has gone to DRS today as QF6005, OQE has yet to depart, is she due back in service?

It looks as though OQE will re-position to LHR to replace OQG and operate QF2 which leaves Wednesday evening at 21:05. As the flight from DRS is just over 1:30 it should be leaving in the next hour or so.

That means that the first cabin refurbishment has taken about 16 days to complete. It is a pity that the first A380 to have the refurbishment is not in the new QANTAS livery. OQG is though.

According to this article https://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-a380...tm_source=grid the first cabin refurbishment hasn't been done yet.

Maybe the September date is when the cabin refurbishment will be officially introduced by QANTAS with a good number of the A380s having been converted. If introduced with only one A380 converted there will only be a one in twelve chance that you will fly on that particular aircraft.

Hopefully, we will have one of our Board members on board QF2 who can confirm. Otherwise I am sure there will be a Australian Business Traveller on board who will post on their site.

Unusual for them to wait until a few are in the fleet to announce, this has not been the case for last refurbs.

Looks like OQA is still stuck in LA clearly with a tech issue....no QF94 tonight as well

I was looking at the LAX departure board online earlier to see if OQA was fixed and it had QF94 departing at a revised time of 10:00 the next day, Thursday (LA time), nearly 12 hours late. If the flight departs then it could turn around in MEL to arrive back in LAX at 18:00 to 19:00 Friday evening and return to SYD or MEL on time Friday night, LA time, arriving on Sunday morning. This scenario would depend on OQA being fixed and returning OQA to LAX from MEL on Friday. The joys of having two A380s off line at once in AUH and DRS.

OQE has NOT been refurbished. The first aircraft to be refurbished will not into go to DRS until next month. OQE was only over for maintenance.

Not to mention that article says the first aircraft goes in for refurbishment in July and won’t be in service until September... so clearly it’s going to take a LOT longer than 16 days.

Thanks for the information, Rowan. Is it usual that QANTAS would have two of their twelve A380s in scheduled maintenance concurrently in different locations - AUH and DRS, with AUH having the more major work done? I thought that any work in DRS was for the cabin refurbishment.

Separately, OQA is still in LAX after 4 days with its technical issue. Overnight, LA time, QF12 (OQK) had an 11 hour delay leaving LAX and is due to arrive in SYD this afternoon around 17:00. The night before QF94 (OQF) had a 12 hour delay leaving LAX and is now on its way back there arriving in two hours. Hopefully, the Friday night A380 departures from LAX will be on time.

I read somewhere that OQA had been hit by a catering truck and has damage that needs replacement parts, has anyone else heard this?

It's been 9 days since OQA has flown and it's still sitting at LAX. Whatever happened must of caused a decent amount of damage? Interesting that there isn't anything on qantassource about it or pretty much where for that matter!

Flap damage.

OQA is back in service operating QF94 from LAX on Saturday night. It is flying back to LAX as QF93 this morning and not onto SIN. It is running a bit behind schedule and is yet to depart.

OQK has finally arrived in Dresden for cabin refurbishment, ferrying in from LHR. It swapped with OQG on 16/7.

Does anyone know what is the problem with OQB which has been in AUH since 15 May??