(Reuters) - Australia's Qantas Airways resumed flights of its Airbus A380 superjumbos on Saturday, after a mid-flight engine failure grounded all six of the planes earlier this month, witnesses said.

Chief Executive Alan Joyce joined the first resumed flight to show that he was confident the aircraft was safe, saying before departure the airline was "always going to operate with 100 percent safety in mind."

Flight QF31 from Sydney to London took off late on Saturday afternoon, a spokesman said, with Joyce joining the flight as far as Singapore.

Two of Qantas' six A380s have been cleared to resume flying since the November 4 incident. Further repairs will be required before the remaining four planes can resume flying.

The incident, in which an A380 with 459 on board made an emergency landing in Singapore, was the most serious so far for the world's largest passenger aircraft.

It hit shares in Qantas, Airbus parent EADS and Rolls-RoyceL>, manufacturer of the Trent 900 engine involved, and forced some other airlines to temporarily ground their A380s as well.

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