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.