A 380 superjumbo is beloved among aviation fans, thanks to its spacious interior, mighty size and quiet inflight experience, but its days have been numbered since Airbus announced in 2019 that it will stop production of the airliner.
The world's largest passenger aircraft's demise was apparently accelerated by the Covid 19 pandemic travel slump, but now German airline Lufthansa, which had been selling off its grounded A 380 s and is understood to be retiring the aircraft from its fleet, has announced plans to redeploy the huge plane from summer 2023.
In the last couple of years, Lufthansa has sold six of its A 380 s, and the airline has eight superjumbos remaining in its fleet. These aircraft are currently in deep storage in France and Spain.
The German flag carrier is still assessing how many A 380 s will be reactivated, and is figuring out what routes they might fly on.
Airlines usually deploy superjumbos on long-haul, popular routes. The size of the aircraft makes it costly to run, so there has to be demand to justify it.
While in recent years the A 380 appeared to be on the way out, Lufthansa's decision suggests that the A 380 is not consigned to the history books. Superjumbos are also found in Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Korean Air, All Nippon Airways and British Airways fleets.