Lufthansa is gradually bringing giant Airbus A380 jets back into scheduled service: This week, the third of these temporarily mothballed and now reactivated aircraft first landed in Frankfurt after it had left the Lufthansa Technik shipyard in Manila in the Philippines had been renovated. The jet had previously been parked in Teruel, Spain.
According to media reports, the aircraft was originally delivered to Lufthansa in 2014. Like its sister aircraft, it is intended to help Germany’s largest airline to cope with the increasing demand for flights until the Boeing 777s that have already been ordered can go into service. The use of the large Airbus machines should therefore only be temporary.
The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger aircraft ever built in series: The four-engine machine is 73 meters long and 24 meters high. It can swing into the air with a take-off weight of 560 tons. Depending on the equipment, more than 850 passengers can travel with her. According to the company, the Lufthansa version has 509 passengers.
If you want to travel with Lufthansa’s A380, you have to do so from Munich. Boston and New York are currently served from there. Connections to Los Angeles and Bangkok will follow later.
In total, the airline plans to return four of the wide-bodied aircraft to service by the end of the year. According to media reports, one or two more machines are to be reactivated.
The A380 is an aviation legend and a favorite of aircraft enthusiasts around the world. However, the extreme dimensions became a problem even before the corona pandemic. Because of the high fuel consumption, airlines complained about problems in being able to use the machines profitably.
14 Airbus A380s were once in service in the Lufthansa fleet, six of which the company sold to the manufacturer Airbus. The airline mothballed the remaining eight machines until it announced a few months ago that it intended to use the aircraft type again.
Sources: “Aero.de”, Lufthansa.com, “Flugrevue.de”
Take a look at the photo series from our archive: End of the long-term storage for five of the once 14 Lufthansa Airbus A380: The aviation photographer Dietmar Plath was there when the giant jets were reactivated in Teruel, Spain. We show his exclusive photos.
