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

SDT UK

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 The A380 had been withdrawn from operation at the start of the global health crisis and remained in long-term storage, including a period between June 2021 and November 2025 in Abu Dhabi.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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00:30The

00:59amount of work that was done on this is incredible, staggering. We just turn up as crew to come

01:06and check it, functional check crew and technical pilots to have a look at it at the end of

01:11the huge amount of work that's been done to make sure this aircraft is in a great condition.

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

01:21check. It's done its 12 year check, new landing gear, a lot of components have been taken off

01:27and put back on, a lot of new components so it's in extra conditions, thousands, hundreds

01:32of thousands of man hours have been done. It's good fun for us to do, it's a bit out of the

01:35ordinary for what we normally do and then from there it had a couple of little things to tidy

01:43up which was good and that was done for our ferry today which we took off yesterday for

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

01:54On the other hand, we had a lot of cópies, it was gone on the bus, so we were out of the

02:00new car and got it all away.

02:02So now let's see, what is the rest of the car?

02:06The new car has been done. It's big enough for us to keep us in the names of these

02:06places. The new cars and the new cars are made up.

02:12The new car has been tuned for the new cars in the car.

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 occurred 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.

03:30For 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.

04:01It's beautiful.

04:02It's beautiful.

04:06It's beautiful.

04:11It's beautiful.

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