Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) plans to continue operating A380-800s through the late 2020s or early 2030s to backfill capacity missing due to delayed B777-9 and A350 aircraft deliveries.
"It depends on demand and when Airbus and Boeing are able to deliver other airplanes," Lufthansa Group Chief Executive Carsten Spohr told Flightglobal.
The German carrier retired all fourteen A380s at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and initially was committed to the type's permanent exit. However, as demand rebounded after the relaxation of travel restrictions, the airline decided to reactivate six aircraft. It recently committed to reintroducing another two. The other six units were sold to Airbus during the pandemic.
So far, Lufthansa has reactivated three A380s, using them on services from Munich to Boston and New York JFK. One more aircraft is under maintenance at Manila Ninoy Aquino International airport, while the others remain in storage.
Spohr confirmed that all eight aircraft will undergo cabin refurbishment and will have Lufthansa's much-awaited new business class seats installed in the coming years.
The carrier has firm orders for thirty-four A350-900s (on top of 21 already in its fleet and five more ordered for subsidiary Swiss), ten A350-1000s, and twenty B777-9s. While the A350s are being delivered, just behind schedule, the B777-9 is stuck in a lengthy certification drive and will not enter service before 2025.
On 9 December 2022, Etihad Airways officially announced it will return the A380 back to service. The plan is to utilize the type as of the summer season next year exclusively on the Abu-Dhabi to London-Heathrow route. The airline is flying into Heathrow four times a day and all these flights will be flown by the A380, freeing up Airbus A350s and Boeing B787s for increasing frequencies to other destinations as well as opening new routes.
Etihad Airways once had ten A380s in the fleet. It's unclear which of those will return and the airline has started preparations for it by recruiting and training additional staff.
The status of the ten Etihad Airways A380s is currently as follow:
A6-APA (166), stored at Tarbes-Lourdes since 5 November 2020 A6-APB (170), stored at Tarbes-Lourdes since 3 December 2020 A6-APC (176), stored at Tarbes-Lourdes since 16 December 2020 A6-APD (180), stored at Teruel since 11 May 2021 A6-APE (191), stored at Teruel since 15 June 2021 A6-APF (195), stored at Teruel since 28 May 2021 A6-APG (198), stored at Teruel since 19 April 2021 A6-APH (199), stored at Teruel since 23 June 2021 A6-API (233), stored at Tarbes-Lourdes since 26 January 2021 A6-APJ (237), stored at Teruel since 26 April 2021
Etihad Airways will be the eighth airline to be flying the A380 (again), following in the footsteps of All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, British Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa, Qantas, and Qatar Airways.
After the hoopla surrounding the reactivation of the first Qantas A380, the return of the second A380 was a far quieter affair. Over the weekend, VH-OQD Fergus McMaster made the journey from storage in California to Sydney, landing back home on Monday morning local time.
Qantas has just flown its second Airbus A380 back to Sydney. Photo: Qantas
VH-OQD departed Los Angeles mid-evening on Saturday for the 14 hour plus flight down to Sydney. The Airbus A380 touched down in wet and overcast conditions just after 06:00 on Monday. The superjumbo had covered 7,641 miles (12,297 kilometers) on this flight.
Eagle-eyed planespotters were anticipating the return to service of the second Qantas A380. They’d spotted this plane doing some laps over Los Angeles in the runup to Saturday’s transpacific flight.
Youtube channel LA Flights has some nice footage of the jet pushing back in Los Angeles on Saturday evening. The A380 takes off right at the end of the footage. That plane is followed by a Qantas Dreamliner – both bound for Sydney.
Weekend A380 laps over Sydney
Qantas resumes scheduled A380 flights between Sydney and Los Angeles on Tuesday, January 11. The thrice-weekly flights are a stop-gap measure to solve a problem caused by out-of-action 787-9 Dreamliner crews.
Qantas reactivated another A380 in early November. VH-OQB Hudson Fysh made a splashy return home and has been busy operating familiarization flights over Sydney for out-of-practice A380 crews.
VH-OQB will depart Sydney and operate QF11 to Los Angeles on Tuesday evening. It will be the first Qantas A380 carrying fare-paying passengers since March 2020. Since the middle of last week, that plane has made multiple take-off and landings from Sydney Airport.
Over Wednesday and Thursday, VH-OQB operated four flights over Sydney, each of approximately one hour’s duration. The flights put crews and the aircraft through it their paces. By the weekend, the tempo of flying was really picking up.
On Saturday and Sunday, VH-OQB operated ten flights around Sydney. By breakfast time on Monday, the superjumbo was up in the air again. The flights typically comprise a loop out southwest towards the Wingecarribee area before turning back towards Sydney, running out over the Royal National Park, and going out to sea before heading back into the airport.
Qantas plans to reactivate 10 of 12 Airbus A380s
The decision to reactivate the Qantas A380s with VH-OQB and VH-OQD is a slightly odd one. Whereas VH-OQD is refurbished with the latest top-notch Qantas cabin product, VH-OQB is not. From a passenger’s point of view, it’s a lucky dip as to what plane you get.
Qantas plans to reactivate 10 of its 12 Airbus A380s. The airline has already refurbished six; VH-OQD, VH-OQG, VH-OQH, VH-OQI, VH-OQJ, and QH-OQK. Six still sport previous generation cabins. It’s not known which two A380s will not return to service. However, you might assume the two would come from the half dozen older yet-to-be refurbished planes.
The oldest Qantas A380 is VH-OQA Nancy Bird Walton, which arrived at Qantas in September 2008. The next two oldest A380s are Hudson Fysh and VH-OQC Paul McGinness, both of which landed at Qantas in December 2008. All three remain unrefurbished. However, the return of Hudson Fysh suggests at least one of the oldest Qantas A380s has a future at the airline.
As travel demand slowly picks up, Asiana Airlines (OZ, Seoul Incheon) will join the ranks of airlines reactivating their A380-800s when it deploys the type on two routes out of Seoul Incheon starting on March 27, 2022.
The ch-aviation schedules module indicates the South Korean carrier plans to use the A380 to operate one of its two daily rotations to Los Angeles Int'l (the other one will continue to be served with A350-900s) and its daily rotation to Frankfurt Int'l (currently also served with an A350-900).
Asiana Airlines operates six A380-800s, which have remained grounded since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.Four are owned while the other two are leased from Minsheng Financial Leasing, the ch-aviation fleets ownership module indicates. The aircraft are 6.8 years old on average.
A resurgent Qantas is bringing their Airbus A380s back into service in April 2022, three months earlier than previously announced. The first A380 will make it back to Australia on Christmas day to assist with crew training ahead of its return to service.
Qantas is bringing its first A380 back to Sydney on Christmas Day. Photo: Qantas
First A380 heading back to Sydney on Christmas Day
By April, two A380s will be operating scheduled flights between Sydney and Los Angeles. A further three A380s will return to service from mid-November 2022, with the remaining five expected to return to service by early 2024.
Qantas’ online schedules already reflect the change, with the daily QF11 service between Sydney and Los Angeles operated by an A380 from April 1. The return flight to Sydney is QF12.
“Our customers and crew love flying on our flagship A380s, so news that they are will be back flying to Los Angeles again from April next year will be very welcome,” stated Qantas CEO Alan Joyce on Friday in Sydney.
“We’ve said for months that the key factor in ramping up international flying would be the quarantine requirement. The decision by the NSW Government to join many cities from around the world by removing quarantine for fully vaccinated travelers means we’re able to add these flights from Sydney much earlier than we would have otherwise.”
The announcement covers ten of Qantas’ 12 Airbus A380s, suggesting the airline is holding firm to its decision to retire two of the jumbos.
As Australia’s vaccination rates soar, draconian border closures, mandatory quarantine, and heavy-handed limits on the number of people who can fly into Australia are quickly falling by the wayside.
Victoria, home to Australia’s second-biggest city, Melbourne, will announce that it is dropping its quarantine rules later on Friday, joining New South Wales. That wedges Australia’s third-largest state, Queensland, and is likely to force their hand in re-opening to international arrivals.
“Only three months ago, we were planning to keep these aircraft in the desert until December 2023,” said Alan Joyce on Friday. “That’s how fast things are moving, and we are optimistic about the demand.”
Qantas boss Alan Joyce was all smiles on Friday morning. Photo: Getty Images
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Qantas brings forward international flying from Sydney
The early return of the A380 wasn’t the only news from Qantas. The airline is bringing a raft of international flights forward and introducing a new service to Delhi. Qantas hasn’t operated regular flights into India for a decade.
Flights between Sydney and Singapore are resuming on November 23, 2021, four weeks earlier than scheduled. Fiji flights will be brought forward to December 7, 2021, from 19 December 2021. Qantas flights to Johannesburg will resume on January 5, 2022, three months earlier than scheduled.
Also on the radar are flights between Sydney and Bangkok, now resuming on January 14, 2022, more than two months earlier than scheduled. Qantas’ low-cost airline, Jetstar, will resume flying between Sydney and Phuket on January 12, 2022, more than two months earlier than scheduled.
Qantas plans to launch a new route from Sydney to Delhi on 6 December 2021 with three return flights per week with its A330 aircraft, building to daily flights by the end of the year. This is subject to discussions with Indian authorities to finalize necessary approvals.
A big boost for Sydney
Note all these flights are running out of Sydney, suggesting the decision of the New South Wales government to re-open first gives that state an early mover advantage and a big economic shot in the arm.
When Victoria confirms its re-opening to international travelers, there will inevitably be fresh flights. But isolationist Queensland and Western Australia are shaping up as flyover states for Qantas international services unless they move to re-open soon.
The icing on the cake for Qantas today is the confirmation all Qantas and Jetstar workers based in Australia and New Zealand who are currently stood down will return to work by early December 2021. This includes around 5,000 employees linked to domestic flying and around 6,000 linked to international flying. Indeed very good news.
British Airways Removes A380 From Schedule Until Late March 2022
In its latest schedule changes, British Airways has removed the Airbus A380 from its schedule until late March 2022. The shift ties in with the launch of the IATA summer season on March 26th but could be subject to further changes due to the evolving nature of the current situation.
British Airways has removed the Airbus A380 from its schedule through March 2022. Photo: Airbus
Last week the Airbus A380 was on the British Airways schedule as soon as October 2021. However, each week airlines update their schedules. This week, according to schedule data from aviation data experts Cirium, the British flag carrier has removed its Airbus A380 aircraft until March 2022.
The earliest flights are currently scheduled for March 27th, with the aircraft scheduled to fly to Dubai, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Miami, San Fransisco, and Singapore. All flights are planned as daily apart from Dubai.
Commenting on the removal, a British Airways spokesperson told Simple Flying,
“We keep our global network under constant review.”
The old schedule had seen British Airways planning to increase its A380 schedule from roughly 90 rotations a month from November to March to around 170 a month From April to July. While the A380 has been removed from the schedules from October to late March, it remains at previously planned levels from April onwards.
Of course, late-march is over half a year away, and it is entirely possible that BA’s plans could change in the meantime. This could see the A380 returning sooner if major international routes reopen, prompting a considerable demand. Equally, the airline could further push the aircraft’s return back in the event of further negative changes as the pandemic develops.
Committed to the type
We know that British Airways plans to bring the Airbus A380 back to service. We just don’t know when. One of the main issues is with long-haul travel restrictions. From the list of planned destinations, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco currently do not accept UK travelers. Meanwhile, it is not possible to travel to Singapore without quarantining.
The airline’s planned A380 network, when the type returns, remains unchanged. Photo: Cirium
That only leaves Dubai, home of A380 giant, Emirates. It doesn’t seem worth it for British Airways to bring the aircraft back for just one route. Although, it will likely end up flying the aircraft for years to come. Simple Flying recently reported that the airline had extended its A380 maintenance agreement for all 12 jets until at least 2027.
