Qatar Airways Will Retire (At Least) Half Of Its A380 Fleet

I'm curious what the cost per seat mile ends up being for ownership here. What a huge waste all around to build aircraft that end with such a short life.

If QR A380s go away wonder if they would continue to keep the Doha first class Al Safwa lounge, or perhaps would just for certain elites or those who pay for the upgraded lounge access.

I was on Qatar A380 CDG-DOH back in Nov. 2019. Flight only had 165 passengers. My son and I (flying in J) had a tour of the entire aircraft; rows and rows of empty seats. If the flight was that empty then...there's no way demand is gonna recover by this time next year (2022)!

The A380 biz might not have Qsuites, but you can't call it uncompetitive. What would you call Air France's biz then?

Lucky: to call their business product onboard the A380 not competitive is a bit rich. It’s reverse herringbone and fully horizontal, and onboard service is still the same as if it had been QSuite.

I hope that they will not just retire them without any operation in the coming months/years, still trying to test out the F-class with QR (I know it is unremarkable, but still looking forward to test it).

@ Dan @ Andreas -- That was poorly phrased on my part, you're absolutely right. Updated the post to better reflect my intent.

@ Luke -- Qatar Airways did recently start giving Privilege Club Platinum members access to the Al Safwa Lounge, before it closed. Keep in mind that historically the intent of the Al Safwa Lounge was really for it to be available to regional first class customers. With Qatar Airways now rebuilding its regional network to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, etc., there will once again be a customer base for the lounge.

I can see a scenario in which Qatar utilizes their A380s (at least some) for FIFA World Cup in 2022 in Qatar. Assuming the pandemic is mostly over. By far highest capacity plane (obviously) on routes to London, Paris, Frankfurt to Doha to bring in loads of futbol crazed fans.

This is unfortunate but makes sense from a financial point of view. Hopefully they will fly again someday. I'll admit though that I love flying the A380 when it's not full.

a380 bizz is still one of the best. Great seats, meals and service and an access to a gorgeous bar to socialize and stretch your legs. I used to fly twice a year to BKK untill they stopped flying the A380 there. I was planning on flying with them on the a380 to Australia but I guess that won't be possible anymore. I just loved the spaciousness and the bar for a longhaul flight. My last ever flight before the pandemic was QSuites Doha to Amsterdam and it was nice but do I want to get stuck in a tiny suite all the way to Australia? I don't know.

A380 is absolutely my favorite aircraft. Qatar Airways' A380 my favorite among all of them. The most beautiful bar in the sky. It will be a loss for the aviation industry if they never fly again. A380 has so many fans that this is a decision many airlines might regret in the future.

Anyone know if Qatar FAs are still flying with full OTT PPE gear? If so, and the cabin still resembles a hospital infectious disease ward, they cannot expect to see passenger numbers pick up anytime soon.

At this point BA, China Southern and Emirates are the only three airlines not to signal they will reduce their A380 operations. Even then for BA it's because of how congested Heathrow can become very quickly again and Emirates is so reliant on the A380 that they don't have a choice.

I flew Qatar's A380 LHR-DOH and DOH-LHR in October 2019 - both flights were pretty full

On the DOH-LHR leg I managed to get a window seat in the upper deck economy section which was very pleasant.

I wouldn't be surprised if Qatar find they have enough demand on their London/Frankfurt/Paris routes within the next 18 months to justify the return of the a380