(CNN) – The A380 superjumbo is beloved among aviation fans thanks to its spacious interior, mighty size, and quiet flight experience, but its days are numbered since Airbus announced in 2019 it was ceasing production of the airliner.
Expensive to run, the demise of the world’s largest passenger plane was apparently accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic travel slowdown, but now German airline Lufthansa – which was selling its grounded A380 – was understood to have It is retiring the aircraft from its fleet – having announced plans to redeploy the giant aircraft from the summer of 2023.
return of superjumbo
Lufthansa’s A380s are currently in “deep storage”. Here is a May 2020 photo of a Lufthansa A380 standing in a storage facility at Teruel Airport.
David Ramos / Getty Images
Lufthansa has sold six of its A380s over the years and the airline has eight superjumbo left in its fleet. These aircraft are currently in “deep storage” in Spain and France.
The German flag carrier says it is still assessing how many A380s will be reactivated, and is figuring out which routes they can fly.
Airlines typically deploy superjumbo on long-haul, popular routes. The size of the aircraft makes them expensive to operate, so there must be demand to justify this.
While the A380 was on the way in recent years, Lufthansa’s decision shows that the A380 has yet to be sent into the history books. Superjumbo also remains in the fleet of Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Korean Air, All Nippon Airways and British Airways.
Top photo: A parked Lufthansa A380 photo captured by Thomas Lohans/Getty Images in March 2020