Qatar Airways does not expect to return its Airbus A380 superjumbos for at least the next two years, the state-owned airlines chief executive Akbar Al Baker said this week.
In an interview for FlightGlobal’s Airlines 2050 event, Baker said:
“I don’t think that the A380 will get back into the skies in the short term. The growth rate will have to be the growth rate we achieved in 2019 for us to consider the A380.”
Baker believes the decision to bring the superjumbo back earlier would be “very foolish”.
In the interview, Baker also stated that there will not be that kind of demand as was earlier in 2019, and if demand starts to grow and people start deploying the A380, you will only be able to achieve [the reintroduction] by dumping the price [of tickets].
“And once you dump the price, you become unsustainable,” he continued.
The state-owned carrier has already planned to start retiring its superjumbos from 2024 when the oldest A380 reaches ten years of service.
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