Originally Posted by
airsurfer
Never flown this route, but I wonder whether this route is really busy. These behemoths are normally used on busy routes (to e.g. LHR, LAX, SIN in the case of QF) or for hub oriented airlines such as EK. But SYD-JNB ? That was a 787 route, an ideal aircraft for such 'niche' connections, like QF 27/28 to SCL. It used to be 744 jumbos before the 787, probably because of ETOPS restrictions as it is a large airportless water body.
But now a daily 380 flight ? Are these full ?
A bit of an explainer on Qantas's logic:
https://www.analyticflying.com/p/sur...esburg-in-2024
But also, it's not ETOPS. Australia operate under EDTO that applied equally to twins and quads, interestingly the A380 doesn't go any further south:
https://www.analyticflying.com/p/cha...-how-far-south