485 Seats, 10 Giant Planes: All You Need To Know About Qantas A380's Routes

Qantas now has ten Airbus A380s, which is the most that it’ll return to service. It will not reintroduce the remaining two frames, as they’re partially scrapped. And all but one of the ten frames are currently active.

Registered VH-OQC, the tenth aircraft was in storage in the hot and dry Abu Dhabi. It arrived back on Australian soil in early December and reentered commercial service on December 7, when it flew from Sydney to Los Angeles. Following damage to a section of the slat on the left wing, Quebec Charlie remains in California.

Where Qantas’s A380s Fly

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In the first half of 2026 (January-June), Cirium Diio data shows that Dallas/Fort Worth, Johannesburg, London Heathrow, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Singapore, and Sydney will see Qantas’ double-decker quadjets. When both ends of its routes are considered, it plans an average of ten daily departures, up from eight in the same six months in 2025.

This increase is particularly driven by the superjumbo’s return to Dallas/Fort Worth, the critical oneworld hub and the busiest hub of its close partner American Airlines, in August 2025. British Airways’ A380s will return to Dallas in 2026.

Qantas will also fly the A380 more frequently between Sydney and Singapore on a standalone, so-called terminator basis. Nine weekly departures will be available from April, up from the usual daily offering that continues to Heathrow.

Superjumbo service from Sydney to Johannesburg has been scaled back year-over-year. Now, mainly four weekly departures are available in the first half of 2026, down from primarily six weekly flights in 2025. Qantas’ reintroduction of Perth-Joahnnesburg flights in December (on the A330-200) might have influenced this.

A Quick Summary Of Qantas’s A380s

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According to ch-aviation, Qantas’s remaining double-deckers average a considerable 16.3 years. The carrier’s oldest frame is the 17.9-year-old VH-OQA. Named Nancy Bird Walton after the Australian aviator, it was delivered in September 2008. It was the 14th A380 off the production line and remains the world’s second-oldest active superjumbo, based on when it was produced, after Emirates’ A6-EDF.

All of Qantas’ ten superjumbos have 485 seats. While a fully unfair comparison, Emirates’ two-class 615-seat A380s have more economy seats than Qantas’ total capacity on its double-deckers. The Australian flag carrier’s examples have the same four-class configuration. There are 14 ‘open suites’ in first (1-1-1), along with 70 seats in business (1-2-1), 60 in premium economy (2-3-2; 38″ pitch), and 341 in economy (in the less desirable 3-4-3 layout; 32″).

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Where Qantas Has Previously Flown The A380

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Examining the carrier’s full commercial network shows the type has had multiple one-off flights. Among other places, they’ve flown to Auckland, Orlando, San Francisco, and Tokyo Narita. The trip to Orlando and Walt Disney World was chartered by the Australian supermarket chain Woolworths as the grand prize for a competition.

The A380 was used much more frequently to Dubai (2013-2018), Hong Kong (2012-2020, then 2023-2024), and New York JFK (occasionally 2011-2014, but regularly 2015-2020). As you probably know, Qantas served Dubai in partnership with Emirates. While their partnership continues, Qantas’s frames have long since ceased being flown to the Middle East on a scheduled basis.

Dubai replaced the much-loved and historical Singapore stopover en route to/from Europe. At the peak, Qantas had four daily A380 departures from the UAE hub: two to Heathrow, and one each to Sydney and Melbourne. When combined with Emirates, Qantas played an important role in the A380 once having up to 11 daily departures from Dubai to Australia.