UK's Global Airlines secures ex-China Southern A380
Global Airlines has "taken full 100% ownership" of an A380-800 formerly operated by China Southern Airlines (CZ, Guangzhou), the start-up's CEO, James Asquith, announced.
"Buying an aircraft outright with no debt, no lease and no financing is no small task," he said. "Some things take a little longer to do when you have full asset ownership, but we are convinced this will set Global up well in the long run."
The 11.37-year-old aircraft was registered as B-6140 (msn 120) while flying for China Southern and was withdrawn from use and ferried to Mojave in late 2022. Kansas-based Jet Midwest confirmed it assisted Global with the acquisition, and on February 2, 2024, the aircraft was entered into the Maltese register as 9H-GLOBL. Hi Fly Malta (3L, Malta International) is the temporary registrant and will assist Global with the A380's ferry flight "in the next few weeks, with its next destination announced in due course."
Global aspires to operate trans-Atlantic flights using mixed-configuration A380s. However, it recently delayed its planned 2024 northern summer debut to later in the year.
In May 2023, Global Airlines announced it had acquired its initial A380-800 from Doric Asset Finance. That plane, 9H-MIP (msn 6), was first operated Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi) and later leased by Hi Fly Malta. However, Hi Fly retired the plane in 2020. The aircraft has since been repainted into Global's livery but remains stored at Lourdes/Tarbes. Asquith's commentary on the weekend did not include an update on 9H-MIP.
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