Emirates’ Penultimate Airbus A380 Flies To The Paint Shop
On Thursday, the penultimate Airbus A380 made its way from the planemaker’s final assembly line in Toulouse to its facilities in Hamburg. Part of Airbus and aviation history, the second-to-last superjumbo ever to be built will now receive its livery in the 42.200 m² A380 dedicated paintshop before joining the Emirates fleet.
Emirates’ penultimate A380 has left Airbus’ facilities in Toulouse. Photo: Vincenzo Pace – Simple Flying
Almost the end for the A380 in Toulouse
As Airbus begins to wrap up production of its superjumbo, two-storied quadjet, Toulouse has started waving goodbye to the last to leave the final assembly facilities. The penultimate A380 to be built was caught on camera as it took off for the manufacturer’s paintshop in Hamburg yesterday morning.
Aviation enthusiast and photographer Clément Alloing, based at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, managed to snap some shots of the not-so-small piece of airplane history as it made a go-around when leaving the south of France.
MSN 271 has been registered as A6-EVR, and once she is all-liveried, as is no surprise to anyone who has been following the storyline of the A380, she will head to Dubai and the Emirates fleet.
The second-to-last of its kind to be completed took off from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS) at 11:16 on Thursday, February 11th. After heading towards the Atlantic and making a little roundabout, it made north towards Germany. Following three hours and 52 minutes in the air, it landed at Hamburg Finkenverder Airport (XFW) at 15:09 local time.
What’s in Toulouse and Hamburg?
Airbus has nine final assembly lines (FALs) in five locations. Toulouse houses a FAL for the narrowbody A320 family, a responsibility it shares with Hamburg in Germany, Tianjin in China, and Mobile, Alabama, in the US. The Mobile plant also hosts a FAL for the A220, as do the facilities in Mirabel, Canada.
However, Toulouse is the only location where Airbus completes the construction of its widebodies. As production of the A380 is now coming to an end, this means there will be two remaining twin-aisle FALs; one for the A330 and one for the A350.
Toulouse also became the site of Airbus’ initial FAL, putting together the world’s first twinjet widebody airliner, the A300, and the A310, over 40 years ago. Meanwhile, the Airbus A380 paintshop in Hamburg, with a surface of 42.200 m², was constructed in 2004.
Emirates has adorned several of its A380s with special liveries, such as the United for Wildlife against illegal wildlife trade. Photo: Vincenzo Pace – Simple Flying
Paintshop special assignments
Over the years, the Hamburg paintshop has been tasked by Emirates to adorn its A380s with special liveries. Many have been related to football as Emirates sponsors several teams from top leagues, such as AC Milan, Real Madrid, and Arsenal.
In 2019, the airline celebrated Emirati Hazza Al Mansouri’s successful mission to space with an astronaut in front of the International Space Station, with the text “The Sky is Only the Beginning.”
Furthermore, the carrier has protested against the illegal wildlife trade, with an eye-catching array of wild animals displayed across a superjumbo fuselage in 2015.
Emirates Takes Delivery of Its 117th Airbus A380 As It Awaits First With Premium Economy
Emirates 117th A380 has been delivered from Airbus. The aircraft departed Airbus’ facilities at Hamburg Finkenwerder for its new home at Dubai International Airport on December 11th. This leaves just six A380s left to be delivered by Airbus before the complete end to the superjumbo program.
With this recent delivery registered as A6-EVM, the next aircraft will be delivered as A6-EVN. Photo: Getty Images
With such few A380s remaining in the production line, each one seems newsworthy. However, the 118th A380 will be extra special as it marks Emirates’ first aircraft fitted out with its new premium economy cabin.
Emirates’ 117th Airbus A380
Published via Twitter, Emirates announced on December 13th that it had taken delivery of its 117th Airbus A380. According to AIB Family Flights, this aircraft has MSN 264 and is registered as A6-EVM.
While flight data for this particular aircraft seems to be unavailable, AIB Family Flights notes that the aircraft departed Hamburg Finkenwerder on December 11th at 17:23 UTC. Having a near-identical departure time to the last A380 delivered, A6-EVL, this would have been an overnight delivery flight of about seven hours, arriving in Dubai at around 05:30 in the morning, local time.
The bigger deal: Emirates’ 118th A380
What’s more exciting about Emirates’ announcement is the additional note mentioning that it will soon receive its next A380, “its first with the long-awaited signature Premium Economy.”
For the last few months now, we at Simple Flying have been left wondering when the first premium-economy-equipped A380 will arrive at Emirates.
According to FlightGlobal, Tim Clark spoke about the new premium economy cabin in an online interview hosted by Arabian Travel Market. While the details were kept brief, he said that the first A380 to have the new premium economy cabin installed is sitting in Toulouse ready to go. This is something we reported on in June.
With A6-EVL being the first aircraft delivered since the story was written, we suspected that the aircraft was ‘the one.’ However, it appears that it will be two aircraft later as A6-EVN (assuming the registrations are in alphabetical order as is quite common.)
Therefore, A6-EVN is the aircraft to watch as it will be the very first Emirates jet to feature a premium economy cabin. It looks like this aircraft is at Airbus’ facilities at Hamburg Finkenwerder and has been undergoing test flights.
On December 7th, the aircraft operated its 8th test flight, registered as F-WWAU.
On December 4th, Emirates took delivery of another Airbus A380, leaving just seven superjumbos remaining to be delivered. The aircraft departed Airbus’ Hamburg facility in the evening for an overnight flight to Dubai, arriving in the early morning hours of December 5th. Could this aircraft be equipped with the airline’s new Premium Economy cabin?
With Emirates as the final airline to have outstanding A380 orders, the end of A380 production will occur next year. Photo: Akash0078 via Wikimedia Commons
Flight details
Emirates’ newest A380, registration A6-EVL, departed from Airbus’ Hamburg Finkenwerder site on December 4th at 19:24. After flying north over Denmark’s west coast, the aircraft took a big u-turn over the North Sea and headed towards Dubai for its overnight flight. The aircraft arrived at Emirates’ home at Dubai International Airport at 05:28 the next morning, December 5th.
The aircraft’s flight path heading over continental Europe, Turkey, and Iran. Photo: FlightRadar24.com
While we are much more accustomed to seeing large Airbus aircraft depart for delivery from Toulouse, the planemaker does have an A380 delivery center in Hamburg as well.
Opened in 2008, the site was intended for European and Middle Eastern customers to receive their A380s, while deliveries to A380 customers located further away would take place from Toulouse. The following is what Airbus said of the site in 2008:
“Airbus will be able to perform the entire process of aircraft delivery in one place, from aircraft and cabin inspection up to all legal and administrative processes. 20,000 square metres of concrete pavement outside the building will provide enough space for two A380s. The building will also host A380 engineering teams and a staff restaurant.”
According to FlightGlobal , Tim Clark spoke about the new premium economy cabin in an online interview hosted by Arabian Travel Market. While the details were kept brief, he said that the first A380 to have the new premium economy cabin installed is sitting in Toulouse ready to go. This is something we reported on in June and A6-EVL is the first aircraft to be delivered since the story was written.
ccording to a November 25th article by Bloomberg, Emirates was to receive three A380s by the end of the year, adding that at least one will have a premium economy cabin.
Seven A380s remaining
The December 4th delivery means that just seven A380s remain to be delivered for the entire A380 program. All aircraft will go to Emirates, and as noted above, two more are expected this year, with the other five coming in 2021.
AIB Family Flights provides some insight into the progress of a few superjumbos:
On December 1st, A6-EVN took its 7th flight (A6-EVL had 12 flights before its delivery)
On November 30th, A6-EVR was spotted in primer for the first time with its engines installed
On November 23rd, A6-EVQ was seen conducting a taxi check and rejected take-off
It looks like the next A380 that will be delivered is A6-EVM, as its 10th flight took place on November 20th. It would also make sense that these A380s will be delivered in registration alphabetical order (EVL, EVM, EVN, and so on).
