Encouraging news that Qantas expects to have all 12 of its popular Airbus A380s back in service within four years has been counterbalanced by a short, yet startling, interview with Qatar Airways chief Akbar Al Baker, in which he says flatly: “There is no future for the A380” – and proceeds to explain why.
The interview with Al Baker, speaking with aviation and travel vlogger, photographer and author, Sam Chui, lasts just two minutes. It’s on Twitter and is well worth watching: https://twitter.com/SamChuiPhotos/status/1382337241683533828
Chui, a Chinese-Australian who lives in Dubai, is a highly regarded expert on aviation. Al Baker tells him Qatar Airways is relinquishing five of its fleet of 10 A380s and may not bring the other five back into service. Qatar Airways’ A380 fleet is under six years old on average and the newest of its A380s is only about three years old.
“There is no future for the A380,” Al Baker declares.
“It was the wrong aeroplane at the wrong time. It is something that passengers love, they liked to travel on the A380. It’s very quiet and it’s very spacious, but at the end of the day, for the operator, it’s really painful.”
The pain lies in operating costs, Al Baker explains. He tells Chui he doubts passengers will want to fly on the A380 post-pandemic because its fuel burn per seat kilometre is so high. Consumers are increasingly active “on the green front”, Al Baker says, and flying A380s will not help any airline striving to become carbon neutral.
Not everyone agrees with Al Baker’s A380 verdict. The plane is highly popular with passengers who know what aircraft they are in. Many other passengers don’t really know what plane they are flying.
As well from Qantas, which aims to bring all its A380s back into service by 2024, British Airways plans to revive its A380 fleet. Emirates does too – its fleet consists solely of A380s and B777s.
So we may see the giant A380s around for a while yet – when they return to the skies, that is. As they are no longer being made, their longer-term future is limited.
In terms of available seat kilometres (ASKs), Qatar Airways is currently the world’s largest air carrier, having recently unveiled a new season’s schedule of over 1200 weekly frequencies across 142 destinations. These cover 43 destinations in Asia-Pacific, including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.
Written by Peter Needham
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