Why the A380 superjumbo is making a comeback

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(CNN) — The post-pandemic recovery of commercial aviation may have an early, unlikely protagonist: the A380 superjumbo.

The largest passenger plane in the world looked like the scrap heap just two years ago, as airlines struggled with the spread of the coronavirus. The entire fleet was grounded, many of the planes went into long-term storage and some airlines even seized the opportunity to get rid of their A380s altogether, with Air France withdrawing his fleet in May 2020.

But with passenger numbers rising and air traffic returning to pre-pandemic levels, the aircraft is experiencing a revival. More than half of the global fleet is already back in service, data from Flight radar24†

Emirates has the world’s largest fleet of A380s.

PASCAL PAVANI/AFP via Getty Images

Lufthansa was the last airline to use the plane back — although not before 2023 — and there are reasons to believe that more A380s will gradually return to the sky.

“It’s definitely making a comeback,” said Geoff Van Klaveren, aviation analyst and managing director of advisory at IBA. “Operators were quite hesitant to return it because it is a very expensive aircraft, but I think we have seen demand recover faster than people expected.”

Coming back more

Airbus produced and delivered 251 A380s, and 238 remain available for service today, with the rest being retired or scrapped. The aircraft, which is no longer in production, is popular with passengers and crews, but not with airlines — only 14 have had surgery it to date.

Nine of these currently fly: British Airways, All Nippon Airways, Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Qatar, Asiana, Korean Air and China Southern Airlines. Some of them already have plans to put even more of their A380s back into service.

Singapore Airlines, for example, currently flies 10 A380s from its fleet of 12, but confirmed to CNN Travel that the remaining two are currently being upgraded and will be back in the fleet soon. Korean Air also said it will recall a third A380 from its fleet of 10 to join the two already in service.

Qantas, which operates three of its 12 A380s on the Sydney-Singapore-London route, confirmed to CNN Travel that it aims to have a total of six back in service by the end of the year, with a plan to add four more. to be restored by 2024 (the remaining two will be scrapped).

Emirates, the largest A380 operator with 123 of the aircraft, is also ramping up. “Today we operate […] more than half of our A380s,” said Richard Jodenbury, vice president of the UK division at Emirates. A380s will join those currently flying.

The very last A380 ever produced, went to Emirates at the end of 2021. It is one of the few Emirates A380s with a premium economy section – a middle ground between basic economy and business class.

It has proved popular enough that the airline plans to equip 67 more of its A380s with them over the course of 18 months and later this year. In that configuration, with four classes including First, Business, Premium Economy and Economy, the aircraft can accommodate 484 passengers. In the closest two-class configuration, business and economy only, Emirates A380s have a capacity of 615 passengers.

Difficult to sell

Lufthansa has announced it will return its A380s in 2023.

Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images

There are several reasons why airlines are circling back to the superjumbo. “There is a lack of widebody capacity as some operators, such as British Airways, have retired older aircraft such as the Boeing 747. There have also been some production issues with the new A350 and so on. So some airlines need the capacity,” he said. Van Klaveren.

That’s not all. For some airlines it makes sense to put the aircraft back into service, because the value of the aircraft has fallen so much that it is no longer possible to sell the aircraft.

“Some operators have realized that it is a very difficult aircraft to sell for many different reasons. If you don’t have A380s, you are definitely not going to include it in your fleet, because that is very risky and expensive,” says Van Klaveren.

“The value of a 10-year-old A380 fell by 60% compared to pre-pandemic, to $30 million compared to about $76 million, which is quite extraordinary. So a lot of [airlines] think they might as well serve them because it costs them money to keep them airworthy.”

In fact, two airlines, Thailand and Malaysia, have put all their A380s up for sale, but haven’t found any buyers yet. The only other holdout to date is Etihad; the Abu Dhabi-based airline has 10 in its fleet but does not operate any and currently has no firm plans to do so.

Shorter lifespan

Emirates recently launched a new A380 cabin, including a premium economy class.

The Emirates Group

Compared to the bleak forecasts of two years ago, now may be the time to envision a brighter future for the superjumbo.

“I think most airlines will continue to use the planes until the end of their lives,” says Van Klaveren. “The question mark is whether that lifespan is 18 years rather than 25 years, which is the lifespan of most aircraft. If you compare it to the new generation aircraft, it’s really not particularly fuel-efficient, so that would suggest that the average age will valleys.”

Because Emirates has so many A380s, the fate of the aircraft will largely be in their own hands. “I think they’ll get them all up and running again, because they’re pretty critical of their business model,” says Van Klaveren.

The Dubai-based airline continues to enthusiastically support the aircraft.

Emirates president Tim Clark said: AirlineReviews that once the A380 is gone, it will leave a void that cannot be filled by any other aircraft currently in production: “I would build another A380 twice the size because of the zero-emission engines we have now, with four, possibly three engines,” he added.

For now, the A380 is still well received by customers around the world and will remain the flagship of the airline for many years to come, said Emirates’ Richard Jodenbury.

“For us, the iconic double-decker bus is redefining the travel experience and remains an essential pillar of our network plans.”

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