Australia's national carrier Qantas Airways is set to announce this week the resumption of its Airbus A380 flights to Los Angeles from January 17, The Australian Financial Review said on Wednesday in an unsourced report.

Qantas grounded its A380 fleet following the 4 November uncontained engine failure on an A380 flight to Sydney from Singapore.

The airline has gradually resumed A380 operations, including flights to London, since then but has not done so on flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Los Angeles due to thrust limitations on the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines on its A380s.

Qantas declined to confirm the report on resuming flights to Los Angeles, one of its most-profitable routes but the longest served by its A380s.

"We are working towards resuming services to Los Angeles as soon as possible based on the advice from our engineering department and stakeholders, but we are not in position to make a comment yet," a Qantas spokesman said.

According to the spokesman, the Qantas A380 involved in the 4 November incident remains on the ground in Singapore, while another A380 in Sydney has yet to resume flights.

Qantas has a fleet of seven A380s, including the two grounded aircraft. The airline is expecting the delivery of a new Airbus A380 in January, which will bring its super jumbo fleet to eight.

One of its A380s remains under inspection while the aircraft involved in the November incident is being repaired.

Qantas shares have lost nearly 14 percent since the engine explosion.

With Reuters