After nearly six years grounded, Qantas’ last A380 returns to the skies

CM - English

Australian airline Qantas achieved an important milestone in its fleet renewal program this week by putting back into service the last Airbus A380 that had remained in storage since the beginning of the pandemic. The aircraft, registered as VH-OQC, landed in Sydney on December 2, marking the end of almost six years out of service. The A380 had been withdrawn from operation at the start of the global health crisis and remained in long-term storage, including a period between June 2021 and November 2025 in Abu Dhabi. During that time, the aircraft underwent a heavy D-Check inspection, received a new landing gear set, and had its entire cabin fully refurbished. According to Qantas, the restoration required more than 100,000 work hours, with parts transported by land, sea and air to meet the project’s needs. The process is part of the airline’s plan to modernize and reintroduce its A380 fleet as international demand continues to rise. Source and images: Qantas Newsroom | carroemotos

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00:56The amount of work that was done on this is incredible, staggering.

01:04We just turn up as crew to come and check it, functional check crew and technical pilots

01:09to have a look at it at the end of the huge amount of work that's been done to make sure

01:15this aircraft is in a great condition.

01:16It is in very good condition, probably the best condition when it comes out of this heavy

01:22check.

01:23New landing gear, a lot of components have been taken off and put back on, a lot of

01:28new components so it's in extra conditions, thousands, hundreds of thousands of man hours

01:33have been done.

01:34It's good fun for us to do.

01:35It's a bit out of the ordinary for what we normally do and then from there it had a couple of little

01:42things to tidy up which was good and that was done for our ferry today which we took off

01:47yesterday for the next day in 18 hours and got it here.

01:53The last night and the last night was set up to the second half of the boat.

01:57The first sight was in the middle of an engine and was pushed into the car and used

02:01to bring it in and out to the last half of the boat and went out in the boat.

02:04Now you see it because of the water running and being filled with a whole life almost

02:06in shock, you can see it's good and that's good.

02:08And that's why it's good.

02:09The next day is theses of driving water running for a while.

02:12Now the hour runs to be in front of the boat.

02:15Previously, the number two engine has been replaced.

02:39Now we're going to do number three engine this morning, removing the original cow and

02:44replacing it with a modified one.

02:46So all up currently, there's about 155 hours on this pack.

02:51There's some inbound defects that we will look at and then get that all squared away.

02:56This is the big task, the engine replacement.

02:59The rest of it is just rectifying all the faults that incurred on the way here.

03:04So right now, we'll get this cowl off, continue on the rest of the maintenance in the pack

03:09and yeah, we'll send it on its way.

03:12Getting the aircraft in Victoria was challenging.

03:14Being in the desert, you expect anything.

03:17We had hot, cold, wind, yeah, we had the works.

03:21However, it was a bit of a satisfaction getting this aircraft out after a lot of work that

03:26has been put in it, yeah.

03:28For myself, it's a sense of satisfaction.

03:31For the company, it's a bit of pride.

03:33Everything just falling into place.

03:36The plane right now is in the A380 hangar, the only A380 hangar in North America.

03:45So the aircraft, it's got that very new plane smell.

03:49So it's beautiful, you know, it's a bit of a difference.

04:01So, you know, you've got to see this.

04:13All right.

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