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Plane boneyards: Qantas looking at moving A380s into 'deep storage' in the Californian desert
Qantas is considering moving some of its Airbus A380s into long-term storage in the Californian desert ahead of a possible early retirement for the superjumbos.
The airline is not operating any international passenger flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is undergoing a detailed review of how many jets it will need during the years-long recovery from the global health crisis.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said in May that its was pausing refurbishments on its 12 A380s and flagged that it might offload some of the double-decker jets.
The airline is now exploring sending up to six A380s into storage at the aircraft "boneyards" either at Mojave or Victorville, both in California, according to airline sources.
A Qantas spokesman said: “We expect all 12 of our A380s to be in storage for some time as we wait for international travel demand to recover".
Moving the jets into desert storage facilities - which have filled up globally as COVID-19 forced airlines to ground their planes - does not necessary mean they will not return to Qantas' fleet.
However there is a growing expectation that some of the A380s will be retired, along with Qantas' two remaining Boeing 747s which were due to retire at the end of this year.
Jefferies analyst Anthony Moulder told clients this month that along with 747s, " we could also expect six of the A380s that haven't yet been refurbished to also be retired".
The world's largest commercial aircraft, which seats around 550 passengers, is adored by frequent flyers and launched to enormous fanfare 13 years ago. But Airbus announced last year it would cease production of the A380, after airlines moved towards smaller, more efficient jets like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and now Airbus' own A350.
Qantas' A380s are currently in storage at Sydney, Melbourne and Los Angeles airport, with one at an Airbus maintenance hub in Dresden, Germany.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/comp...17-p553de.html