QANTAS Fleet and Operations

[MarkR]

Qantas’ direct service from Perth to London’s Heathrow Airport has been diverted as tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate and foreign carriers avoid Iranian airspace amid fears Tehran is planning an attack on Israel.
A Qantas spokesman confirmed flight QF9 from Perth to London would now fly via Singapore for refuelling due to the adjusted flight path. The return flight QF10, however, can carry enough fuel and is still flying direct from London to Perth.

https://www.afr.com/companies/transp...0240413-p5fjjv

[MarkR]

OQJ did a rotation through Gatwick for the first time, on charter to what I suspect is the usual customer

[Tristan S]

EBN is due to re-enter service today after spending a couple of weeks in BNE reportedly being fitted with Viasat WiFi

[MarkR]

11 years after leaving the fleet, former VH-ZXC is still going strong for Eastern, although her age is showing!

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5-KcUFu..._web_copy_link

[Brenden S]

Mark, looks like a little Hydraulic leak from the rudder has taken the paint away. Skydrol does that to aircraft paint.

[James Smith]

From QANTAS Flight Status, A380 VH-OQH is scheduled to depart AUH at 16:10 local today and arrive is SYD at 6:10 Saturday morning.

Another A380 is scheduled to depart SYD at 11:10 on Saturday morning for AUH, presumably also for maintenance. Early contenders would be OQB, OQD, OQI & OQJ to be reduced by two depending on which A380's depart as QF1 & QF11 later today.

[Tristan S]

Originally Posted by James Smith

From QANTAS Flight Status, A380 VH-OQH is scheduled to depart AUH at 16:10 local today and arrive is SYD at 6:10 Saturday morning.

Another A380 is scheduled to depart SYD at 11:10 on Saturday morning for AUH, presumably also for maintenance. Early contenders would be OQB, OQD, OQI & OQJ to be reduced by two depending on which A380's depart as QF1 & QF11 later today.

OQB it is.
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/vh-oqb

[James Smith]

QANTAS A380 VH-OQB is scheduled to depart SYD at 11:10 today for maintenance in AUH. It will be delayed a little as the inbound aircraft didn't arrive until 9:24 as QF12.

OQH arrived from AUH this morning and will operate either QF1 or QF11 later today.

[Dennis McLean]

So QF still has only 6 in service at the moment.

[James Smith]

Yes Dennis. When OQB arrives today there will be OQB, OQC (since 20/6/21), OQK (24/2/24) & OQL (13/3/24) in AUH. They are getting through the QANTAS A380 maintenance program now that Etihad's own A380s have been returned to service, freeing up that facility. OQK shouldn't be too much longer in AUH and OQL is being refurbished and should return to service in late May to mid June.

QANTAS only need six A380's for their current timetable - 3 for SYD-LHR-SYD, 2 for SYD-LAX-SYD and 1 for LAX-MEL-LAX but this has no replacement capability built in with only the six aircraft. The next build up in A380 capacity was to be SYD-JNB-SYD (4-6pw) and more MEL-LAX-MEL (6pw) in July but this has been put back to late September 2024. Hopefully, all the major maintenance work, refurbishment (OQC?) and any gear changes will be done by then and the ten A380s will all be operational. Not sure though if there are any further wing spar checks required in the next year or so.