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The A380 is a mighty big aircraft – and when mechanical glitches affect A380 flights, a lot of passengers can be left hanging around air terminals.

Qantas cancelled at three or four flights between Melbourne and Los Angeles between last Saturday and this Monday. The disruption caused other flights to arrive very late, drawing a lot of social media flak.

https://twitter.com/RobertsonBurns/status/1158744241478049792

Hundreds of passengers, including a large Scout group, found themselves stuck at Los Angeles Airport and sleeping in the terminal.

Qantas said Sunday’s QF94 from LA to Melbourne was cancelled “due to an engineering issue relating to a panel on one of the aircraft’s wings”.

Monday’s QF93 flight to Los Angeles was also cancelled.

Qantas A380

One passenger said she and her family were rebooked onto Sunday night’s flight after their Saturday flight was cancelled – only to find the second flight was cancelled as well.

As always, when such glitches occur, passengers gave the airline a drubbing on social media.

https://twitter.com/SCheeksToo/status/1158611895743479808

The problem with very big aircraft is that when a “mechanical” puts one out of service, accommodating hundreds of people at short notice is no easy task.

The A380 is usually reliable and passengers love the big quiet plane, but airlines are already plotting a timeframe to retire their A380s, among them Air France, Qatar Airways and Lufthansa. See: Airbus on endless roll, helped by BA and Air France

Written by Peter Needham