None of the eight remaining Airbus A380 superjumbos in the Qatar Airways fleet has been airborne since the start of April, and new scheduling data obtained by Simple Flying suggests the airline has plans to fly the double-deck aircraft until June at the earliest.
The grounding of Qatar Airways’ largest passenger jet is just the latest sign of the massive impact that the Iran War is having on airlines throughout the Middle East, echoing the kind of effect that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the aviation industry.
Where are they now?
- A7-APC – landed in Doha on April 1 from Teruel
- A7-APD – landed in Doha on March 28 from London Heathrow
- A7-APE – landed in Doha on March 25 from Bangkok
- A7-APF – landed in Doha on March 24 from London Heathrow
- A7-APG – landed in Doha on March 28 from Rayong
- A7-APH – landed in Doha on March 24 from Bangkok
- A7-API – landed in Doha on March 21 from London Heathrow
- A7-APJ – landed in Doha on March 28 from Paris
Qatar Airways has been taking a cautious approach to rebuilding its operations out of its Doha hub, given the continuing threat of Iranian missile and kamikaze drone attacks, although the airline was initially using its Airbus A380s for repatriation flights.
In recent days, the airline has rebuilt around a third of its pre-war schedule, according to data supplied by Flight Radar 24, but it now looks like Qatar Airways will rely on smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft, while passenger demand remains tempered.
Qatar Airways officially has ten Airbus A380s in its fleet, although two have remained in long-term storage since early 2020.
At one point, the return of the eight remaining Airbus A380s was in doubt when former Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker slammed the aircraft as the “worst mistake” that he had made while in charge of the airline.
If it had been up to Al Baker, the planes would never have returned to service following the pandemic, and Qatar Airways was even willing to take a multi-billion-dollar hit on retiring the planes much earlier than planned.
In the end, Qatar Airways did end up returning the planes to service after a dispute with Airbus over the airworthiness of newer A350 widebody aircraft that saw the airline ground dozens of planes for months on end.
In 2023, however, Al Baker once again said that the A380s would be retired once the A350 dispute was resolved. Although that disagreement is long dealt with, the airline’s two most recent CEOs have given no indication of retiring the superjumbo fleet.
Scheduling data from Qatar Airways, however, suggests that the A380 fleet will remain grounded until June at the earliest. That, however, is very much subject to change given how volatile the security situation is in the Middle East at the moment.
