Airbus Updates No.3543

 12 Years Ago Today The First Lufthansa A380 Rolled Out Of Final Assembly

12 years ago today, in 2009, the world got its first glimpse of Lufthansa’s first-ever A380. The aircraft, unpainted and not ready for passengers, was glimpsed leaving Airbus’s assembly facility in Toulouse before officially joining the Lufthansa fleet in early 2010. We’ve taken a look back at how the history of Lufthansa’s A380s.

12 years ago, Lufthansa’s first A380 rolled off the final assembly line. Photo: Laurent Errera via Wikimedia

Lufthansa’s first A380 was actually around three years late, thanks to Airbus’ production schedules. The aircraft was the first of an order for 15 A380s. The airline took delivery of the aircraft, registered initially as F-WWSH and finally registered as D-AIMA, on 19th May in Frankfurt. The A380-800 was named Frankfurt am Main in honor of its German hub.

Despite the three-year delay, several more A380s joined the Lufthansa fleet very quickly. After launching routes to Tokyo, Beijing, New York, and Johannesburg, then CEO Christoph Franz commented,

“The A380 is efficient, environmentally-friendly and, with its low noise level, not only pleasant for the passengers, but also contributes to reducing noise pollution at heavily-used airports like Tokyo-Narita and Frankfurt. Quality, economic efficiency and also the environmental performance of the aircraft are trend-setting”.

Oh, how things have changed since 2010!

The Lufthansa A380 fleet

Nowadays, the A380 is seen as an outdated, inefficient relic and is being replaced by a more fuel-efficient generation of aircraft. However, back in the day, the excitement surrounding the double-decker was tremendous. The aircraft provided a sense of luxury for those traveling in first class and made carrying vast numbers of passengers easier and cheaper.

Leaving the A380 behind

The initial enthusiasm for the A380 died out reasonably fast. For many airlines, it was just too big. The production delays and costs meant that even for Airbus, the A380 program never really took off. Production ceased after only 12 years. The BBC reports that Airbus initially planned to sell 700 A380s. Just 254 were built.

Most airlines were happy to fade out the A380 over the coming decade. However, the global pandemic and sudden drop in passenger numbers have led airlines to retire A380s early. Lufthansa is just one of several airlines that have taken the step to remove the A380. The airline confirmed the giant would “obviously” not come back earlier this year.

All of the airline’s remaining A380s are currently stored. As for the original D-AIMA? It flew to Spain for storage in May 2020, almost 11 years to the day that it joined the Lufthansa fleet.