The A380 is back in Munich: On Wednesday, the first giant jet, which Lufthansa now wants to reactivate, landed at the airport in the Bavarian capital. From there, the airline intends to return to destinations with the world’s largest passenger aircraft ever to be mass-produced.
When the Airbus A380 was decommissioned by many airlines and the European aircraft manufacturer stopped production, many aircraft fans around the world were sad. Because the former Airbus hope is an aviation legend: The four-engine machine is 73 meters long, 24 meters high and can take off with a take-off weight of up to 560 tons. Depending on the equipment, more than 850 passengers have maximum space there. According to the company, the Lufthansa version has 509 passengers. Because of its enormous dimensions, Airbus employees once called the plane “fat goose”.
However, the gigantic dimensions were also the biggest problem of the European flagship aircraft: In view of the comparatively high fuel consumption, airlines complained about difficulties with profitability. The machine was considered oversized just a few years after it was launched and some Airbus customers had already taken it out of their fleets before the corona pandemic.
And now the comeback – because the demand for long-haul flights has recently increased significantly and new aircraft cannot be delivered as quickly as airlines would like, write industry experts. Lufthansa will serve the Munich – Boston route with the A380 from June 1st. And that “after a break of almost three years,” as the company announced this week.
From the American Independence Day, July 4th, the giant plane will also fly to New York – also from Munich. According to media information, all A380s that Lufthansa will put back into service are to be stationed in the Bavarian capital.
By the end of the year, four Airbus A380s are to be in service again for Lufthansa on long-haul routes. According to official information, a total of six of the machines will be reactivated.
14 Airbus A380s were once in service in the Lufthansa fleet, six of which the company sold to the manufacturer Airbus, and the remaining eight machines were mothballed by the airline. The industry website “Aero.de” speculates that Lufthansa could bring all eight machines remaining in the group back into service. The giant jet may also be used in the direction of India.
But it will probably take a few months until then. First of all, this Wednesday, the first reactivated Airbus A380 was transferred from Frankfurt to Munich, where the aircraft will be completely checked again. The pilots also have to complete practice flights with the machine.
According to a report by Bayerischer Rundfunk, the use of the A380 at Lufthansa could only be temporary – we are talking about three or four years.
Sources: Lufthansa, Bayerischer Rundfunk (on Youtube), “Aero.de”, “T-Online”
See the photo series: End of the long-term storage for five of the once 14 Lufthansa Airbus A380: The aviation photographer Dietmar Plath was present at the reactivation of the giant jets in Teruel, Spain. We show his exclusive photos.
