AFP: Qantas said on Tuesday that two of its six Airbus A380 planes would resume flying on Saturday, three weeks after a mid-air engine blast triggered serious safety concerns over the world's biggest passenger jet.
Chief executive Alan Joyce said flights would resume with a Sydney to London flight via Singapore, adding that Qantas was working with Airbus and British engine-maker Rolls-Royce to get the other A380s back in service.
"We're completely comfortable with the operation of the aircraft," Joyce told reporters.
"We're working with Airbus and Rolls-Royce on what it will take to get the (other) aircraft back in the air," he added.
Joyce said the Australian flag-carrier was taking delivery of two more A380s, also with Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, by the end of the year, with another two early in 2011.
But he said the giant double-decker aircraft would not be used on the trans-Pacific Los Angeles route until the company was "100 per cent sure" the problems had been resolved.
Joyce added that Qantas was being 'very conservative' with the re-introduction of the aircraft.
Qantas grounded its A380s after the November 4 scare when one of an A380's four engines blew up minutes into a flight from Singapore to Sydney, damaging a wing and scattering debris, and forcing an emergency return to the city-state.
Singapore Airlines has grounded three of its 11 A380s and Lufthansa is changing an engine on one of its superjumbos as a precaution, while other A380 operators use engines from another manufacturer.
The incident cast a shadow over the A380, which weighs 560 tonnes at takeoff and can carry as many as 853 passengers, and was hailed as the future of long-haul aviation at its commercial launch in 2007.