My goal next year is to fly as many A380s as possible
Covid seemed to have given the A380 the death knell. In the early months of the pandemic it seemed to be a kind of trickle. [...]
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The Covid seemed to have given the A380 a shot in the arm.. In the early months of the pandemic it seemed to be a kind of trickle. Every week at least one company would pop up saying goodbye, or almost goodbye, to its fleet of giants of the skies. But then things did not go as everyone predicted, traffic numbers did not take years to return to pre-pandemic levels, indeed. To this we must also add the chaos at airports, the absence of personnel, the difficulties of Boeing to start 777x deliveries, on schedule and the Blockade by U.S. authorities on 787 deliveries .
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To cope with this perfect storm, all carriers who still had a chance to change their minds did so and today virtually everyone who had the A380 in the fleet put it back on the runway.
Those who have not changed their minds about the A380
Unbelievable, but the only company that did not back down was Air France. The French company was the first in March 2020 to say goodbye to the giants built right in France, and to date he has not changed his mind. Other carriers such as Etihad have said goodbye, but new rumors emerge from time to time, to date denied by management.
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There is then Thai Airways, which in one fell swoop eliminated both the A380 and 747 from its fleet, that is, the two most iconic aircraft ever built. To date, the fleet is parked on the runway of Bangkok airport, but these four-engine aircraft are unlikely to fly again.
A case in point is Malaysian Airlines., which has announced that it has put its 6 specimens up for sale., but to date continues to keep them operational even without having put them back into service. The reason, perhaps, is that Malaysia Airlines does not just want to scrap its fleet of A380s-they are owned by the airline and estimated to be worth over $200 million, but to date no one has come forward to buy them.
Who hasn't stopped flying them
Of all the carriers that had A380s in their fleets, few have kept the helm steady and have not retired the giant of the skies. Of course, Emirates, which took half of the A380s produced into its fleet, never thought of depriving itself of them and, in fact, always continued to fly them. And now it is preparing for a major investment to modernize the interior of its fleet.
Along with Emirates, China Southern has also never stopped flying its few A380s, Indeed, one of its drivers even entered the record book. Even Korean has never grounded some of its specimens.
A380 Singapore Airlines
The same is true for Singapore Airlines, which with the restart of travel immediately reactivated more than half of its fleet, while the remainder went to the junkyard. ANA had also said that his A380 would once again take flight, partly because the Japanese airline was Airbus' last new customer and Two of the three A380s were delivered during the pandemic.
Who changed his mind
There are few Carriers that have the A380 in their fleet, among them, however, the vast majority went in the space of 12 months from not wanting to know anything more about the largest passenger plane ever built to putting it back on the runway in zero time, or nearly zero time.
A380 Qatar
Everyone has their own motivations of course. For example. Qatar had said that the A380 had been the cardinal sin, the biggest mistake ever made. But the Doha-based airline found itself in litigation with Airbus over issues over the A350's paint job and, unable to get planes from Boeing on a tight schedule, was forced to reactivate the fleet, which now flies regularly to London and Southeast Asia.
Lufthansa had also said goodbye to the A380 and instead in summer 2023 will return to take off from Frankfurt., because even the German carrier has to wait much longer than expected for the new 777x, and thus large planes are needed to meet passenger demand. The list goes on with Qantas, Korean, British Airways, all carriers that have reignited their engines and brought back into the air the plane that was to mark the first century of the new millennium and instead has already seen production cease after just over 14 years.
My goal 2023
I have always said that the first rule of reward travel is to have clear goals in mind, my target for 2023 is clear: I want to fly as many A380s as possible before the carriers change their minds again.
British Airways' newest Airbus A380
I am currently planning to fly, in a couple of months, aboard the Singapore Airlines first class suite, ticket taken with Krisflyer points. In February it will be the turn of the A380 by British Airways: it's going to be ugly old business class, but on board the A380 everything tastes different.
March will be Qatar's turn, Of the giants of the skies that are still flying, this is in my opinion one of the first that will be grounded permanently. It currently flies very few routes, and I chose the Doha/Bangkok, rather than flying to London or Paris, I was able to detach a prize ticket that will allow me to pair with Qatar: A380 in first and Qsuite aboard 777/300.
In June it will be the turn of the shower aboard the Emirates and a series of flights aboard the A380, hopefully refurbished, of the company that will last ground the A380s.
I am also hunting for ANA's winged turtle., the issue here is that these planes fly only one route: from Tokyo to Hawaii. The other goal that I hope to be able to book using points is. Qantas' A380, perhaps on the Los Angeles-Sydney route.
In conclusion
Not many carriers are still flying the A380, But by the same token, there is very little time available, which is why needs to be done soon, and I'm sure I'll have to empty the piggy bank of points and miles accumulated over the past few months to be able to peel off all these tickets, But as I did for Lufthansa's 747/8., these experiences have their days numbered and I don't want to have any regrets.
