Qantas halts Project Sunrise, A380 upgrades
 

Qantas puts Project Sunrise on hold, won’t be ordering Airbus A350-1000 jets as planned this year
More at https://www.executivetraveller.com/n...s-a350-on-hold

Qantas pauses A380 upgrades; entire international fleet under review
More at https://www.executivetraveller.com/n...iew-a380s-747s

Interesting.

You have to wonder if its even worth keeping a subset of their A380s active. Yes, some flights (LAX?) may be able to fill them up but given the operating expenses presumably there is more chance of 787s taking over the main international routes to LAX/DFW/SIN/LHR.

With their 11 787s they should be able to provide daily flights to the above international ports from SYD, MEL and PER(QF9/10)?

Efficient fleet, plus the savings from removing the entire A380 fleet.

There would be a significant up front cost both cash and book value in removing them in the next say 3 months. It is not like there is anywhere to send them but the desert for storage. There wasnt a strong market for them pre Covid-19 and I doubt they are worth anything. Perhaps a revaluation of the assets value is on the cards on this basis.

They would have to write them down anyway if their value has deteriorated no?

Would the cash cost to mothball and remove them entirely offset the cash cost for continuing to operate a small, relatively inefficient fleet compared to 787s?

I would have thought the "payback" of removing all A380s would pay off. Having just 4 or 6 aircraft is inefficient at the best of times!

Correct. Of course the counter argument is that you could argue higher value if still used but if you really look at it from an arm's length point of view then there's a strong case to be made for a writedown/impairment either way.

Indeed. And given they will be having numerous other exceptional items this year, financially, writing off the value of the A380 fleet by permanently grounding them would be relatively attractive given the focus is on cash and on containing operating costs.

The implications for passengers though - no more F. Would be an issue if Frequent Flyers and large corporates planned to resume pre Covid travel habits however I would think in the medium term the lack of F wont be an issue - QF always said it had value, although they never explicitly said it had financial value. In the new world, I doubt the lack of F matters given the larger efficiencies.

(at least until Sunrise happens!)

(if it happens!)

I hope they clean those old config A380’s!! Flew in J this feb and it was pretty grotty!

Maybe they will get the 787's from JQ which will allow them to release the domestic 330's to international kissing goodbye to the 747 and 380.

The A380 has 2 advantages for a post-Covid19 world which could make it more economical to operate. It has a lot of floor space, so could be configured for social distancing (e.g. selling only half of the Y/W/J seats. That could fit the space better than for B787/A330. The second advantage is cargo capacity. Value of cargo on pax flights could rise dramatically, particularly when few flights operate (I've heard that spot cargo rates have more than doubled in the past month). Freight has always been a lucrative business for QF, esp. in California (they still have air cargo buildings at SFO, which they kept even when there were no SFO flights by QF -- silicon valley freight was too lucrative).

So there are some scenarios that would keep the A380 in the fleet ... just not as before.

Is that really viable though? I agree A380 has more physical space however QF wont operate it only half full.? It'll surely lose more money than operating 787 half full.

(and I'm not sure how any airline will operate any fleet to accommodate full social distancing short of governments continuing to subsidize airlines - 50% or even 60% load factors they'll be out of business in no time!)

Good point re freight, although as the 787 has nearly has much capacity and a lot more economical I'm not sure the A380 is an attractive proposition. Combine with the points made earlier in this thread I think its time is coming to an end for QF

Qantas weight limits DFW-SYD taking out 100 pax. So it's obviously profitable at 370 pax. If you were to raise your economy fares by a couple hundred dollars each, you could take out even more seats/pax.

Pallet of freight in between passengers ought to do it. ;)

All, the article states Reference: https://www.executivetraveller.com/n...iew-a380s-747s

Does anyone know the reg numbers for the six aircraft that have been refurbished - I have found only 3 - VH-OQH, VH-OQJ and VH-OQK but not any others.

According to Qantas Source COVID Fleet Watch page: Covid Fleet Watch | The QANTAS Source

As of 26th May 2020: Airbus A380-800

VH-OQA – Stored Sydney
VH-OQB – Stored Los Angeles
VH-OQC – Stored Sydney
VH-OQD – MX Abu Dhabi
VH-OQE – Stored Melbourne
VH-OQF – Stored Los Angeles
VH-OQG – MX Dresden
VH-OQH – Stored Sydney
VH-OQI – MX Dresden
VH-OQJ – Stored Los Angeles
VH-OQK – Stored Melbourne
VH-OQL – Stored Sydney

As Vera Bennett from Prisioner used to say, with her infamous smirk, to released prisioners........"You'll be back!"
With the 747's all probably gone the A380 will be needed.