Lufthansa to bring back A380 in reversal of pandemic move to retire the jet

DEUTSCHE Lufthansa will return the Airbus A380 double-decker jet to service next summer, reversing its pandemic-era decision to retire the aircraft as travel demand soars.

The carrier is assessing how many 500-seat A380s will need to be reactivated and where they should fly in summer 2023. One reason for bringing back the 4-engine model is delays in deliveries of ordered aircraft, Lufthansa said in a statement Monday (Jun 27).

"We decided today to put the A380, which continues to enjoy great popularity, back into service at Lufthansa in summer 2023," Lufthansa said in the statement. That's too late to help the carrier with current bottlenecks due to staff shortages, which have prompted it to scrap 3,100 flights this summer.

The sudden rebound in travel across the world after 2 years of stringent curbs has prompted several carriers to bring back the hulking model that had largely been written off when Covid-19 upended the aviation industry. By the end of 2022, monthly A380 flights will be almost 60 per cent of pre-Covid totals, according to Cirium data.

The superjumbo - seen as heralding a luxurious new chapter for aviation with its onboard bars and whisper-quiet interior when it was introduced in 2005 - was falling out of favour before the pandemic hit, as airlines turned to smaller, more fuel-efficient planes. Airbus killed off the programme in 2019.

At the height of the pandemic in June 2020, Lufthansa retired 6 of its 14 A380s, with the rest mothballed for at least 2 years with the prospect of the model never returning to service. An airline executive at the time said the chance of operating the jet from its main hub of Frankfurt was "close to zero".

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The Boeing 777X, which was meant to replace the superjumbo as the biggest model in Lufthansa's lineup, has slipped 5 years behind schedule, with deliveries now postponed to 2025. BLOOMBERG