Qatar Airways will only retain half of its A380 fleet

Qatar Airways only plans to retain five of its 10 Airbus A380s as it recovers from the Covid-19 crisis, according to the airline’s CE Akbar Al Baker. Al Baker cited the superior economics – and consequently lower environmental footprint – of the Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s in the Oneworld carrier’s fleet versus those of the Airbus superjumbo. “Even when we operate [our A380s], we will only operate half of the numbers we have”, Al Baker states. “So if you are very interested to purchase some for yourself, I will sell [them] to you.” Regarding the A380s that it plans to keep, Al Baker reiterates that Qatar Airways has no plans to bring them back into service “for the foreseeable future”, amid a recovery in air travel demand that is expected to take several years. In July 2020, Qatar Airways released analysis showing that its A380s emitted 95% more carbon dioxide per block-hour on its Melbourne, New York and Toronto routes than its A350s, and an average of 80% more across all services. “The [A350s] and [787s] are very efficient airplanes when it comes to emissions, especially the [A350-1000],” Al Baker states. “We never expected that aircraft to [reach] the efficiency that it has today.”<br/>