This is news that should delight passengers. The A380, their favorite aircraft, according to airline surveys, is making a strong comeback in the air. It is once again finding favor with the airlines. Especially those who have kept it in their fleet. This is the case of Emirates, the Dubai company, and the biggest customer of the A380 with its 120 copies, which has relaunched the plane. “We have already put 70 back into service. The other 50 are still in the desert”, confides Thierry Aucoc, general manager Europe and Russia of Emirates. The latter should soon be back in the air, because “the planes are full”adds the executive.
After a violent halt to air transport in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the A380 has made it possible to respond to the recovery that the sector has been experiencing since the end of 2021. Like Emirates, Singapore Airlines did not hesitate to relaunch its A380s. Nine are already in service, while the last three are completing their major maintenance visit and refurbishing their cabins. This comeback of the A380 is also spreading to Europe. British Airways, however very tested during the health crisis, has redeployed its very large long-haul aircraft to respond to the influx of passengers.
At Singapore Airlines, this Airbus is the flagship of the fleet. The only one to offer the famous “suites”, private cabins with double bed, sliding doors, blinds…
It is that, for some, this plane, full, is very profitable. It generates “from 60% to 70% of the results of Emirates”, assures Cédric Renard, its Managing Director France. Better, the plane “would be the most profitable device” of the fleet. At Singapore Airlines, this Airbus is the flagship of the fleet. The only one to offer the famous “suites”, private cabins with double bed, sliding doors, blinds and portholes for more privacy, very popular with Chinese newlyweds on their honeymoon. Further still, in the antipodes, the Australian Qantas, the Japanese ANA and even China Southern have also emerged from the hangars of their A380s.
Unloved by Air France
Other companies, on the other hand, don’t want to hear about it anymore. Air France, Lufthansa or Thai Airways pushed their Super-Jumbo towards the exit. The French company has even brought forward the shutdown, initially planned for 2022, of the operation of its A380s by two years.
The super jumbo has always been the unloved of Air France management since the arrival of the first copy in 2009. The plane will not even have benefited from the new cabins. Too big, too difficult to fill, too expensive to maintain and operate, too often broken down, for Air France, the A380 had many faults. “It’s difficult to operate the A380 when you only have six or ten”, analyzes Thierry Aucoc. Impossible to achieve economies of scale on maintenance or pilot training. Above all, he adds, “it is not possible to have small planes which supply a hub and A380s which then serve long-haul destinations”. Precisely, the model chosen by Air France. “At Emirates, A380s power A380s”, explains the general manager.
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