I read in a media report that the QANTAS A380 refurbishment is going to take two months to complete for each aircraft and is due to be fully completed by the end of 2020. OQK, being the first aircraft to have the work done, took 80 days from leaving SYD to returning to SYD but could have had other maintenance work done as well while in DRS.
A further seven and a half aircraft will be able to be refurbished in the two month time cycle, excluding OQK, up to the end of 2020. To achieve the completion schedule QANTAS will need to have two aircraft in for refurbishment at the same time for up to eight months of the year.
The schedule is further impacted with another A380 being required from 4/12/19 to 28/3/20 to operate QF127/128 HKG services and a further one four days pw from 13/12/19 - 26/1/20 to operate the seasonal QF17/18 SYD - LAX - SYD service. QANTAS has also stated that the remaining three A380s to be painted in the silver roo livery will be done in 2020, which will take another six plus weeks. There could be maintenance requirements on top of this, although a number of the A380s have had varying periods of maintenance this year, one for over three months. None of these impacts are factored into my calculations which would increase the time for two aircraft to be refurbished simultaneously.
It will be a busy time for the QANTAS A380s up to the end of 2020.
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