Qantas A380 order cancellation further clouds aircraft’s future

Qantas’ formal cancellation of an order worth nearly $5 billion is another blow for the struggling European superjumbo.

Qantas plans to keep its 12 A380s flying but won’t be ordering any new ones. Picture: Supplied.

Qantas’ formal cancellation of its order for another eight Airbus A380s will only stoke speculation that the European manufacturer should take the superjumbo out of production altogether.

On Thursday Qantas formalised its earlier decision not to take up an order for another eight A380 aircraft, announcing that contract has now been cancelled.

The Flying Kangaroo made the call several years ago to bolster its fleet with Boeing 787-9s instead of more A380s, citing the Dreamliners’ fuel efficiency and longer range capabilities.

In a statement, a Qantas spokesman confirmed the decision not to take eight additional A380s ordered in 2006, had been formalised with Airbus.

“These aircraft have not been part of the airline’s fleet and network plans for some time,” said the statement.

“Qantas remains committed to a major upgrade of its existing A380s, which begins in mid-2019 and will see us operate the aircraft well into the future.”

Qantas has 12 A380s in its fleet and eight Dreamliners, with another six 787-9s to be delivered starting later this year.

The formal cancellation of the A380 order comes as Airbus continues talks with its biggest customer of the super jumbos, Emirates, on the future of its contract.

Emirates has 109 A380s in its fleet, and another 53 pending delivery but is understood to be considering switching some of those on order to smaller A350s.

With other orders for A380s dwindling in recent years due to their considerable size and cost, there has been speculation Airbus will stop manufacturing the aircraft altogether.

The A380 is worth about $US436 million per aircraft, making the eight aircraft Qantas had originally intended to buy worth around $4.89 bn.

A brief statement issued by Airbus in response to media reports about Emirates’ order confirmed discussions were occurring but said those talks were confidential.

The Airbus order book showed in 2018, 12 A380s were delivered, compared to 5 in 2017.

The first A380 entered commercial service in 2007 with Singapore Airlines, and was first flown by Qantas a year later.