Qantas is one of ten airlines with scheduled superjumbo services. Funnily enough, it has ten double-deckers, which include VH-OQC, which reentered commercial service in December 2025 but had an inauspicious return. Two other frames have been partially scrapped.

The Australian flag carrier’s first A380 was delivered in September 2008. It was the type’s third user, after Singapore Airlines and Emirates. According to Cirium Diio data, Qantas’ first passenger-carrying flight on the type took place on October 20, 2008, between Melbourne and Los Angeles. That very long route will stop seeing the A380 later this year.

Qantas No Longer Uses The A380 On These 12 Routes

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Using Cirium data to examine where Qantas flew the superjumbo between 2008 and 2025 and what’s planned in 2026 indicates that the following routes no longer see it—or won’t later this year. They include some ‘classics,’ such as when the carrier replaced its stopover in Singapore with Dubai while flying to/from the UK. More on those operations later in the article.

Several of the entries were very time-limited and, consequently, perhaps shouldn’t be included. They include when the Woolworths supermarket chain chartered an aircraft to fly sweepstakes winners to Orlando to visit Disney. And when an aircraft flew to Tokyo Narita with only passengers able to book tickets using frequent flyer points. However, for simplicity, not all charters are mentioned below.

Qantas Will Stop Flying The A380 From Melbourne

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The current year will be the end of an era, of sorts. While the Victoria airport was the first to see Qantas’ scheduled A380 services in 2008, the oneworld member’s superjumbo flights will end in October 2026. This follows the decision to exclusively fly the Boeing 787-9 to Los Angeles on a daily basis.

Of course, Qantas has barely any A380 departures from Melbourne anyway. For a while now, it has only operated twice-weekly to Los Angeles, along with a handful of flights to Changi in July 2023, September 2023, May 2025, and November 2025. As recently as early 2020, it had two daily departures: one to Los Angeles, and the other to Singapore.

While the plan might change, Melbourne’s final Qantas scheduled service (for now) will take place on October 24. QF93 will depart from Victoria at 9:45 am and arrive in California at 6:05 am local time the same day. Returning, QF94 will leave Los Angeles at 8:55 pm and get back at 6:45 am+2. The aircraft will then presumably be positioned to Sydney.

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Qantas From Australia To London Via Dubai

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The 12 routes mentioned in the table collectively had 11,933 departures from Australia on the A380. Some 30% of these were on two routes: Melbourne-Dubai-London Heathrow and Sydney-Dubai-London Heathrow.

This setup existed between 2013 and 2018, and was, of course, in partnership with Emirates. Qantas still has a joint venture with the Gulf giant, which includes a comprehensive codeshare agreement. Codeshare analysis shows that passengers can reach 33 airports via Dubai with its partner this year.

When Qantas flew to Europe via the Middle East, the pair of carriers collectively had up to 14 daily departures between Australia and Dubai. This includes all equipment, and not just the A380.

For example, 12 years ago today, on March 10, 2014, these services existed: daily from Adelaide, two daily from Brisbane (one flight via Singapore), three daily from Perth, four daily from Melbourne (one via Kuala Lumpur, another via Singapore), and four daily from Sydney (one via Bangkok). This was when four of Emirates’ flights continued to New Zealand, mostly on the A380.