Today was another excellent day for Airbus A380 fans, especially those in Australia. Singapore Airlines operated the first commercial Airbus A380 flight to Sydney since the onset of the pandemic, closely followed by Emirates around ten hours later. According to flight schedules, daily services are set to continue.
Last month, Qantas became the first airline to fly an Airbus A380 to Australia since the onset of the pandemic (many have been flown out in the meantime). While the arrival of an Australian registered A380 was undoubtedly exciting, the giant jet had no passengers onboard. Today things changed in this regard.
Singapore arrives first
While Emirates was the first airline to bring the Airbus A380 back post-pandemic (China Southern never stopped flying the jet), it wasn’t the first to return to Sydney with Passengers. That accolade was taken by Singapore Airlines.
Just over 14 years ago, Singapore Airlines and Sydney Airport were involved in a historic flight, the first Airbus A380 passenger service. Today, another special flight was operated by the two.
Early this morning at 02:01, a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 registered as 9V-SKS took to the skies as flight SQ231. According to flight data from RadarBox.com, the aircraft was over an hour late leaving Singapore. It touched down in Sydney an hour later than planned at 11:55.
Emirates joins the party
It wasn’t long before Emirates also joined the Airbus A380 party down under. Flight EK414 departed from Dubai at 02:28. While still late, it wasn’t quite as late as the Singapore flight, with only a 28-minute delay. The aircraft then proceeded to fly for 13 hours, covering just over 12,000 kilometers.
At 22:28, the aircraft touched down in Sydney, almost 40 minutes late. For the special occasion, Emirates used A6-EEU. The airline has recently sent this aircraft on several special flights, such as a flyby at last month’s Dubai Airshow, as it features the airline’s most ambitious livery to date, the Expo 2020 livery. The aircraft spent around 24 hours on the ground, meaning there was an excellent chance to see the livery.
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What about Qantas?
Before too long, the Australian flag carrier should also resume Airbus A380 flights from its home airport. Last month it ferried its first A380 back to the airport to undergo maintenance ahead of its service return.
Over the coming months, we will likely see the jet returning to the skies for test flights and to refamiliarise the crew after so long away from the aircraft. In the case of British Airways, this took the form of short-haul flights to Madrid and Frankfurt. Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines used Malaysia for training flights. Perhaps Qantas would put the aircraft on domestic flights to reacquaint the crew with the mammoth plane.
Are you excited to see Singapore Airlines and Emirates returning to Sydney with the Airbus A380? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!
