Over a decade has passed since the first Airbus A380 was taken to the skies, and since then,
the aircraft had ups and downs until the beginning of the pandemic.
In 2020 the double-decker jet suffered an enormous loss and was almost completely out
of circulation.
As of June 2020 the A380 had only 43 units wandering our skies.
But, the sun has shined once again for the Super Jumbo.
With the world going back to normal after the COVID crisis, the Giant of the Skies began
its recovery.
Emirates' A380 recovery has led the way - unsurprising given the airline's lack of other options
- though other airlines are gradually increasing their market share.
In terms of aircraft types, the Airbus A380 was one of the most significant casualties
of the COVID-19 pandemic, with every airline, bar China Southern Airlines, grounding the
aircraft.
According to schedule data from Cirium, there were 3,259 Airbus A380 flights scheduled in
March 2022.
This represents a 7,500% increase in the 43 A380 flights operated in June 2020.
However, it is still a significant decrease compared to 2019's March traffic figures.
With 9,783 Airbus A380 flights scheduled in 2019, March sat at just one-third of pre-pandemic
schedules.
Additional Airbus A380 services will join the schedule over the coming nine months.
The jet should hit 40% of its 2019 flight schedule this month.
In November and December, the number of A380 flights planned exceeds 52% of 2019's figures.
In April 2022, Emirates had 2,717 A380 flights planned.
According to the schedule, this will increase by around 1,000 to 3,769 in December.
Interestingly, while Emirates is adding around 1,000 flights over the next nine months, its
share of the Airbus Jumbo Jet schedule will actually decline as other airlines increase
their use of the aircraft.
In March, Emirates was responsible for 81.5% of all flights with the giant plane.
However, by December, barring future schedule changes, this will drop just over 13% to a
68.3% schedule share.
The removal of Emirates' A380s was confirmed in its latest schedule upload over the weekend.
It shows the fragility of demand, and how much farther there is to go until normality
returns.
On the topic of these route changes, an Emirates spokesperson commented:
"Emirates' planned A380 services to a few cities across our network has been deferred
after a routine review of our operational requirements.
Emirates is still committed on rebuilding our global network and services and we will
announce the deployment of our A380 aircraft on specific routes at the appropriate time.”
8 routes will be removed from Emirates schedule.
There's a certain predictability about most of the eight, especially hard-hit Asia, whose
recovery is slow.
It's mainly the case for China, which seems to want a zero-COVID situation.
These routes are: To Beijing (PEK), expected to be once daily from July 1st.
but the route was suspended for the year; To Birmingham (BHX), expected to be once daily
from July 1st.
But will remain twice daily with the Boeing 777-300ER; To Copenhagen (CPH), expected to
return once daily from October 30th.
Will remain once daily with the Boeing 777-300ER; To Hong Kong (HKG), expected to return on
October 30th on the non-stop.
Now is once daily via Bangkok also by Boeing 777-300ER; from October 30th, also once daily
by Boeing 777-300ER non-stop; To Nice (NCE), expected to be once daily from July 1st.
Will remain once daily with the Boeing 777-300ER; To Prague (PRG), expected to be once daily
from October 30th.
Will also remain once daily by Boeing 777-300ER; To Shanghai (PVG), expected to return once
daily from July 1st.
But the route was suspended as well and to Tokyo (NRT), expected to return once daily
from July 1st.
Will remain once daily with the Boeing 777-300ER.
Three of the European routes have lower premium demand generally and probably more than ever
now.
However, removing the A380 is less because of that and more because of lower overall
demand.
It means the three European routes can't currently sustain the higher premium offering of lower-density
A380s, nor the higher volume of seats on the higher-capacity, two-class aircraft.
Shifting these three European routes to B777-300ERs as the recovery continues removes about 42%
of seats for sale per departure or around 260 seats.
It also means business class is reduced by over a quarter.
With this route removal and the fall of Emirates market for the A380 Singapore Airlines is
the main airline set to steal the market, with the inaugural A380 customer claiming
15.7% of flights in December.
The impact of ANA, Asiana Airlines, China Southern, and Korean Air is negligible.
British Airways' schedule is set to shrink over the winter season as things currently
stand, though Qantas and Qatar will hold similar-sized chunks of the market to British Airways in
the final month of the year.
Currently the A380 Fleet flying our skies is not very promising, but this should change
in the next months.
Airbus delivered its 254th and final A380 to Emirates late last year.
Unfortunately, while the oldest aircraft are still reasonably young by commercial aircraft
standards, they are still facing retirement.
According to ch-aviation.com, today, 93 of these aircrafts are listed as active.
This corresponds to around 37% of all A380s built.
67 of these active jets are operated by Emirates and the second airline with the most A380s
being Singapore Airlines with only 9 but this number will increase even further alongside
the uptick in scheduled flights not only for Singapore but all the carriers.
Qantas, for example, will need more Airbus A380s to place the type on its route to London
this summer.
Thankfully, most of those not being flown are simply in long-term storage.
ANA has confirmed the return of the aircraft, set to go back to the sky on July 1st.
The carrier has only three units on its fleet, and they are now scheduled to serve one route
from Tokyo to Honolulu.
Korean Air has added flights to New York's JFK Airport to its summer flight schedule.
According to the carrier's latest schedule filing, the giant of the skies is due to fly
to the Big Apple from Seoul Incheon once a day, also from the start of July.
Other airlines are now ungrounding their jets and others like Lufthansa still don’t have
plans to operate them any time soon, but they are stored in a way that is possible for the
ungrounding to happen.
Ch-aviation portal lists 152 aircraft as in storage or maintenance.
Nine aircraft are listed as scrapped or written off, or put on display at museums.
While the Airbus A380 is steadily returning to the skies, it won't ever reach the levels
of flights managed before the pandemic.
The reason is that many airlines have retired all or part of their fleets.
Air France and Lufthansa have no plans to fly the giant of the skies again, while Singapore
Airlines culled its fleet.
Malaysia Airlines sought to sell its jets on LinkedIn, and Hi Fly declared its A380
wet lease project a failure.
Etihad Airways also seems unlikely to fly the type again but hasn't ruled out doing
so.
While it continues to fly the A380, Qatar Airways has been clear that it would rather
not do so.
The future of the A380 seems to be ensured by just a handful of airlines, though with
plenty of aircraft not likely to fly again, there will be plenty of spare parts to go
around.
British Airways looks pretty committed to the type.
Last year it signed maintenance agreements for all 12 jets that will extend into 2027
if not renewed.
Emirates will likely be the last A380 operator, having taken delivery of its last jets just
last year.
It's unclear when exactly it will retire the double-decker, though this will likely be
in the 2030s.
Last week Emirates President, Sir Tim Clark, revealed that the A380's decline was his single
biggest problem.
What about you?
What do you think the Airbus A380 future will be like?
Tell us in the comments!