Welcome back A380, Lufthansa announces the return of the giant of the skies
Official Lufthansa brings A380s back on track, from summer 2023 the giant double-decker, the world's largest passenger plane will return to take off from Frankfurt to the rest of the world
Lufthansa
Star Alliance
The story of the A380 is full of twists and turns. When it was thought to represent the future of mass travel, all the world's major airlines queued up to have it in their fleets. But then the crisis of 2008 caused many companies to change plans, and so the A380 has not been as successful as Airbus hoped. Today, June 2022, the assembly line has been dismantled and repurposed, and the Last produced examples already delivered to Emirates.
In this article:
The A380 has given companies a chance to indulge, so we saw the first high-altitude shower, 7-star mini-apartments, bars, and lots of beautiful seats. Of course, we didn't see the casino envisioned by Virgin Atlantic, but the much space was used very intelligently by the few companies that received their own double-decker giants.
Then covid came along and everyone Carriers have decided to thin the fleet in the name of rationalization and cost savings. The 4-engine aircraft: the A340, A380, and the 747s, have been the losers.
In February 2020, what seemed like a swan song began., bells around the world were tolling for the A380. Too big, too energy-intensive, too everything. We witnessed and recorded statements from CEOs of major companies declaring that the choice of the A380 had been the cardinal sin, the worst mistake in aviation history.
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The covid slowly let the world breathe, passengers enjoyed their newfound freedom and began traveling again. So slowly companies have had to come to terms with a problem they have never experienced before: the absence of personnel. The same thing has happened and is happening at airports halfway around the world: staff shortages and in some cases chaos reigns.
This is how the A380, like the phoenix arab, has returned to flying. First as was expected with Emirates, then with almost every other carrier. To date, only Air France and Thai Airways have permanently retired the A380, the others-even those like Etihad and Qataris had regretted (or cursed) the day they ordered the iconic double-decker plane-they went back to flying it. Many decided to reduce the fleet, but keep the option to change their minds, and they did.
There are many reasons for this. There are those who like Emirates could not do otherwise, there are those like Qatar who have to deal with the Lack of aircraft after grounding A350s cause paint problems, there are those who as ANA could not fail to do so since its three examples had been delivered just before the pandemic. Then there are those, such as Qantas and Singapore, who saw the A380 as the only aircraft capable of carrying so many passengers on a single flight.
Also added to this list today Lufthansa. We had already written about it, the German carrier was planning to awaken its giants from hibernation in the desert, and now confirmation has come.
The airline plans to use the long-range aircraft, popular with customers and crews, again starting in summer 2023. The carrier is currently evaluating how many A380s will be reactivated and which destinations the Airbus will fly to.
Lufthansa still has 14 Airbus A380s, which are currently parked in Spain and France for so-called long-term deep storage. Six of these planes have already been sold; eight A380s remain part of the Lufthansa fleet for the time being.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG board members also announced the reactivation of the A380 in a joint letter to the company's customers, "In the summer of 2023, not only do we expect to have a much more reliable air transportation system around the world, but we will also be pleased to welcome you back aboard our Airbus A380s. We decided today to put the A380, which continues to enjoy great popularity, back into service in summer 2023. In addition, we are further strengthening and modernizing our fleets with some 50 new Airbus A350s, Boeing 787s and Boeing 777-9 long-haul aircraft and more than 60 new Airbus A320/321s in the next three years alone."
Lufthansa's A380s are configured with 4 classes for a total of more than 500 seats
- Eight first-class seats, in a 1-2-1 configuration
- 78 seats in business class, in a 2-2-2 configuration
- 52 premium economy seats, in 2-4-2 configuration
- 371 seats in economy class, in a 3-4-3 configuration
If this summer was the return to travel, next summer will be the definitive restart, which is why the German carrier has decided to bring back its flagship, the largest aircraft in its fleet and capable of carrying the most passengers. Above all, the 8 A380s will offer 64 first-class seats and almost 600 business class seats which the company badly needs to meet the demand for premium passengers.
In conclusion
Lufthansa will bring its A380s back on track in March next year, it is still unclear on which routes, but it does not matter. For us who are in love with this plane, it is enough for us to know that other specimens will return to fly from one part of the world to another. this makes us happy.
