QF to Cancel final 8 A380 orders

[Greg Hyde]

From flightaware/ABT

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says the airline has no plans to buy any more Airbus A380s, including the eight superjumbos still listed on the order books at Airbus HQ.

The Flying Kangaroo currently runs twelve of the double-deck jets on flagship routes to Los Angeles, Dallas and London, with the final eight initially announced in 2006 as "firm orders" by then-CEO Geoff Dixon, with deliveries through to 2015.

Qantas has repeatedly hit pause on that schedule, however, with Joyce now confirming he sees no place for the remaining eight superjumbos in the network.

Speaking at the CAPA Australia Pacific Summit 2016, Joyce said that Qantas is “continually pushing those aircraft (deliveries) out, so our intention is that we’re not taking those aircraft.”

“We have 12 aircraft and the 12 aircraft we have are fantastic aircraft and actually serve the missions we have,” Joyce continues.

“We believe there’s a network for 12: it’s very good and it works very well. We struggle with a network for the next eight, so that’s why we keep pushing them back.”

While the orders haven't been cancelled outright, Joyce says they'll sit on the books for at least the next 10 years but the airline won't make good on them, instead preferring to “keep on pushing them out”.
After the A380...

Qantas is now considering both the Boeing 777X and the ultra-long range Airbus A350-900ULR for its post-2020 fleet, especially as the airline begins to redraw its network map around non-stop flights of 16+ hours.

Earlier this year Joyce said he was "absolutely" looking at the A350-900ULR, which Singapore Airlines will begin flying in 2018 to relaunch non-stop flights from Singapore to Los Angeles and New York.