Crews train without passengers
How Lufthansa brings back the A380 giant jets
4/15/2023 5:41 am
Because the demand for Lufthansa long-haul flights is high, the world’s largest passenger aircraft is returning to the fleet. 14 decommissioned giant jets are being reactivated. Ahead of the restart, the A380s can be seen at several unfamiliar airports.
Before the giant Airbus A380 plane restarts, the Lufthansa crews complete a comprehensive training program. In addition to Leipzig-Halle, other airports in Germany will be flown to for take-off and landing maneuvers with the world’s largest passenger aircraft in the coming weeks, as the company announced in Frankfurt. However, passengers cannot be on board.
At the end of 2022, Lufthansa announced that it would resume regular flight operations with the Airbus A380 wide-body jets in the summer after a three-year break. From July 1st, it will go daily from Munich to Boston, the airline announced in Frankfurt. From July 4th, an A380 will also take off every day towards New York.
Lufthansa had already taken the four-engine A380 out of the fleet before the Corona lull for reasons of efficiency. Because the delivery of new aircraft has been delayed and at the same time the demand for long-haul flights has increased, some of the 14 giant jets that have been decommissioned are now being reactivated. Last Wednesday, the pilots landed twelve times at Leipzig-Halle Airport with an A380 for training purposes and took off again immediately, as a spokeswoman reported. After these “touch and go” manoeuvres, Lufthansa’s only operational A380 to date was brought to its Munich location.
20 pilots for each A380
Up to and including September, three more aircraft of the type with 509 seats are to be reactivated. From the long-term parking lot in Teruel, Spain, they will first be flown to the maintenance site in Frankfurt, then to Manila for a general overhaul and finally via Frankfurt to Munich. According to the agreement, Lufthansa wants to return six A380s to the manufacturer Airbus by November. According to the previously known schedule, further exercises are planned in Leipzig-Halle on April 18, 22 and 28. In May, visits to other airports are to be added, which Lufthansa intends to announce at short notice. Extensive ground training also takes place in Munich.
Lufthansa needs around 20 pilots and around 400 flight attendants with valid licenses for each individual A380. On a normal scheduled flight, the crew consists of two people in the cockpit and 21 in the cabin. Line operations are scheduled to resume on June 1 on the Munich-Boston route. An A380 connection to New York is also planned from July 4th. Significantly shorter routes than currently with a Boeing 747 jumbo to Mallorca should not exist with the A380.