Qantas, Virgin Australia prepare to boost widebody flying – and more new arrivals are on the horizon

Australian airlines are planning to reactivate, or wet-lease, more widebody aircraft to add international capacity in the near term, although it could still take years for the country's widebody fleet to reach pre-pandemic levels again.

Qantas is preparing to return its last two grounded Airbus A380s to service in 2025, giving the airline more options in its international network.

Meanwhile, Virgin Australia has gained almost all the approvals it needs to wet-lease Boeing 777-300ERs, as part of an expanded relationship with Qatar Airways.

After these additions, there is likely to be a gap in Australia's widebody fleet growth, with no new-delivery widebodies expected until late 2026, when Qantas is due to take delivery of the first of its modified Airbus A350-1000s for its Project Sunrise initiative.

Virgin Australia appears much further away from purchasing its own widebodies. Although it has signalled that it will look to transition from wet-lease to dry-lease operations with the Qatar Airways 777s, the airline has no widebody orders on the books.

Summary

• Australian airlines have 59 widebodies in service, versus 79 before the pandemic.
• Qantas expects one more A380 to enter service in mid-2025, and another late in the year.
• Project Sunrise A350-1000s are due for delivery from 2H 2026; routes to begin in 2027.
• Additional A350s and 787s are scheduled to begin arriving from 2027.
• Virgin Australia’s 777 wet-lease deal with Qatar Airways is likely to transition to dry lease.

Australia's smaller widebody fleet is mainly due to Virgin's exit from long haul, but Qantas is also down on numbers

Data from the CAPA - Centre for Aviation Fleet Database shows that there were almost 80 widebodies in service with Australian airlines in Dec-2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit: Qantas accounted for 57, Jetstar 11, and Virgin Australia 11.

Fast-forward to the present, and the total is 59 - comprising 48 operated by Qantas, and 11 by its Jetstar subsidiary.

Like many airlines, Qantas accelerated the phase-out of some older widebodies during the COVID-19 pandemic - most notably its remaining Boeing 747s. The airline has since added some Boeing 787s - but not enough to offset the aircraft departures.

Virgin Australia opted to exit all widebody flying during its restructuring, phasing out its Airbus A330s and Boeing 777s.

Passenger widebodies in service with Australian airlines, from Jan-2019

Source: CAPA - Centre for Aviation Fleet Database.

It should be noted that despite the smaller widebody fleet, Qantas' international weekly seat capacity is at about the same level as it was in the first few months of 2020.

Qantas will soon have all of its A380s back in the air - although it will have two fewer than in 2019

Qantas put its 12 A380s into storage in 2020, and these have been the last of its aircraft to return to service after the pandemic.

It has now reactivated eight, and has two more yet to return. Two were retired from the fleet.

One of the remaining A380s is due to re-enter service around the middle of 2025, and the other towards the end of the year, Qantas CFO Rob Marcolina said during a media briefing on 27-Feb-2025, as reported by Aviation Week Network.

The A380s have been undergoing heavy maintenance and cabin upgrades before they return, and this process has taken longer than expected - due to supply chain bottlenecks.

After many years in gestation, 'Project Sunrise' is moving closer to reality

Deliveries of the Qantas A350-1000s will be the next significant addition of widebodies to the airline's fleet, Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson said during the media briefing.

The airline has ordered 12 of these, with modifications to extend their range, including an extra fuel tank. They are intended for ultra-long haul routes, such as Sydney to London and New York, under the airline's Project Sunrise.

The initial aircraft is due to enter the final assembly stage in Sep-2025, with delivery expected in the second half of 2026.

After training flights and other preparations, the Project Sunrise flights are due to begin in 2027, Ms Hudson said.

Ms Hudson said that the development of the long-range variants of the A350-1000 appears to be proceeding as expected. "We still feel pretty confident that Airbus has maintained the schedule" that it committed to, she said.

With more widebodies coming later, Qantas has turned to wet-leasing to provide short term support

In addition to the Project Sunrise aircraft, Qantas also has orders for 12 more A350-1000s in standard-range configuration, as well as 12 Boeing 787s.

These widebodies are due to begin arriving in 2027, and will partly be used to replace the airline's A330s.

The airline plans to refresh the cabins on some of its A330s to improve the product until the replacement is complete.

While there has been a gap in new widebody deliveries for Qantas, the airline has wet-leased two A330s from Finnair to help serve international routes.

This deal is due to transition to a dry-lease later this year - meaning that the aircraft will have Qantas crews and liveries. The airline regards this as "bridging capacity for us", said Ms Hudson.

Overall, "We feel really happy that [the fleet plans] are sufficient to serve what we believe are our needs for international", she said.

Widebody deal is an important component of the Virgin Australia-Qatar partnership, which has almost gained clearance

Meanwhile, Virgin Australia intends to make a return to long haul services with the Boeing 777s it is leasing from Qatar Airways.

This is a key part of a proposed partnership between the airlines, which would be cemented by the Qatari airline acquiring a 25% stake in Virgin Australia.

Virgin Australia plans to use the 777s to launch routes to Qatar Airways' Doha hub from Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, beginning in Jun-2025, and between Melbourne and Doha from Dec-2025. The services would be operated under a codeshare.

Qatar Airways already operates its own flights to five destinations in Australia, but faces limitations under the bilateral aviation agreement between the two countries.

The partnership requires approval from multiple Australian authorities.

The major regulatory hurdles have been overcome, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issuing draft approval on 18-Feb-2025.

A final ACCC decision is expected in Mar-2025 to Apr-2025, although it would be very unusual for the final decision to reverse the draft approval.

The Foreign Investment Review Board and Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers granted approval for the deal on 26-Feb-2025.

Virgin Australia's Qatar partnership may allow it to move back to widebody operations in stages

When the wet-lease proposal was first announced in Oct-2024, Virgin Australia hinted that it could be a step towards adding its own widebody aircraft.

The wet-lease operations will enable it "to assess the longer-term merits and viability of widebody aircraft", the airline said.

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka added that it "allows us to put our toe in the water regarding long haul international [flights]".

In announcing his decision, Mr Chalmers said the wet-lease arrangement "will increase Virgin Australia's capacity on key international routes and provides a long‑term pathway for the airline to operate its own long‑haul flights."

Virgin and Qatar Airways have committed to consulting with unions on the potential for Virgin Australia to start dry-lease operations using its own crews, no later than three years into the partnership.

They intend to create a "structured secondment program", where 20 pilots and 40 cabin crew from Virgin Australia will be sent to Doha to gain long haul flying experience.

Any such moves will happen under new leadership, with Chief Commercial Officer Dave Emerson replacing Ms Hrdlicka as CEO from 14-Mar-2025.

Widebody fleet growth has been slow, but some important developments are still occurring

While Qantas is down on widebody numbers compared to before the pandemic, it does have a strong order book in place - including some very ambitious choices.

These deliveries are set to begin in the next year or two, but will take several years to complete. And they are not all for growth, as there will obviously be an element of replacement.

There will be a gap in widebody fleet growth following the reactivation of the last two A380s, which will be a factor in Qantas' international network plans.

Narrowbody fleet developments are moving more quickly - with Airbus A220 deliveries under way and A321XLRs deliveries due to begin in Jun-2025.

While the A321XLRs are predominantly aimed at domestic fleet replacement, some will eventually be used to augment the widebody fleet on international routes.

When Jetstar takes delivery of its own A321XLRs from 2027, they will allow the LCC's widebodies to be deployed elsewhere.

It has been a long road for the much-publicised Project Sunrise, although the current management is still firmly committed to the plan that was launched by the previous CEO, Alan Joyce.

With the aircraft entering the production cycle, the project is moving beyond the hypothetical and closer to fruition.

Virgin Australia's widebody plans involve Qatar Airways aircraft and crews, but even though this is a wet-lease arrangement, it will still be adding widebody capacity to the Australian market - no matter who is flying them.

Virgin Australia will be integrating widebodies more closely into its operation if it transitions to a dry-lease arrangement with Qatar Airways, which the airlines have signalled will happen within three years.

The question of Virgin Australia taking the next step and ordering its own aircraft is more complicated. Any such consideration would probably not occur until after the airline's long-signalled IPO occurs.

And even if widebody orders were to be placed soon, it would likely be some years before deliveries could begin.