Lufthansa is bringing the world’s largest passenger plane back into service due to high demand. The A380 was phased out three years ago because it was deemed too big and too expensive. In a pandemic, there is no demand.
It’s too big and too expensive. Based on these arguments, Lufthansa parked its A380s in hangars in September 2021 at the height of the pandemic. The last machine used carried 449 passengers from Bangkok to Frankfurt. It is part of a fleet of 14 such aircraft that Lufthansa entered into service between 2010 and 2015.
On Thursday, the Lufthansa A380 will fly again for the first time in three years: it will fly from Munich to Boston, and from July it will connect again to New York’s JFK.The offer will change in the autumn: “Flights to Bangkok and Los Angeles are scheduled in line with the winter flight schedule,” Lufthansa spokeswoman Bettina Rittberger said in an interview. tagesschau.de.
Lufthansa plans to use A380 by 2027
The A380 should remain in service for a few more years: “We plan to use the A380 until 2027,” Rittberger explained. Lufthansa is currently waiting for various aircraft that have not yet been delivered. Delivery bottlenecks can delay this.
The entire A380 fleet will be based in Munich. Currently, four A380s and two spare aircraft will be reactivated. The other two remained on the ground. It has not yet been decided whether they will also be reactivated.
Despite the climate crisis and austerity, giant planes?
Giant planes in a time of austerity and the climate crisis? Lufthansa did not provide any information on the cost of bringing the plane back into service. “We looked at the numbers very carefully and made a positive decision; the A380 paid off.” The A340-600 currently flies to New York, but the A380 has 80% more seats. And it should be greener to fly, at least compared to the smaller planes in use today: “The A380 uses 20 percent less kerosene and CO2,” says Rittberger. Currently, guests book machines individually. Demand pressure is high.
Lufthansa is the third largest A380 customer with 14 aircraft, behind Emirates and Singapore Airlines. Airbus has repossessed six of the planes due to contractual obligations. Eight are in long-term park mode and in hangars. They are not needed in corona times. Additionally, the plane was considered too large and too expensive. They should be reactivated in the event of an “unexpected rapid market recovery”.
Other airlines have turned their backs on the A380 in the past, at least in part: Emirates, Airbus’ biggest customer with 123 on order, has cut orders. So, in 2019, Airbus announced a shutdown; the order backlog became too small.
Last summer, the time came — demand increased, and there were delivery bottlenecks for other machines from Airbus and Boeing. There is a shortage of aircraft on order but not yet delivered. “Every plane on the ground is going to be injured,” Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said recently.
50,000 additional passengers in summer
Capacity is now desperately needed: the A380 holds 509 passengers. According to Lufthansa, when the giant plane returns to service this summer, it can carry an additional 50,000 passengers, Rittberger confirmed earlier information from the company. According to Rittberger, over the next year, the A380 will carry at least 1 million additional passengers for whom Lufthansa would otherwise be unable to fly. “We now have growth.”
Lufthansa has yet to decide what to do with the jumbo jets after 2027, according to the company. The A380 first flew in April 2005, and the first scheduled service took off in 2007 – with Singapore Airlines delivering a plane a year and a half late.