3 Airlines talk about their A380-fleet future at CAPA Live
During the CAPA Live event of 14 April, three airlines discussed the future about their A380-fleet in a bit more detail and we thought it would be good to share what they've been saying.
British Airways, again, said they are confident that the A380 has a future with the airline. According to its CEO the A380 works "really well" for the airline and will continue to do so when demand picks up. To be ready for a possible resumption of flying, the airline is conducting frequent maintenance to its twelve parked A380s, shuttling them back and forth from their storage locations to London-Heathrow. For now, British Airways is planning to return some of its A380s back to service from June onwards for flights to Dubai, Los Angeles (CA), Miami (FL) and San Francisco (CA).
Another airline confident on the return of their A380s is Qantas. The airline has parked all of its A380s in the US in long-term storage, but expects all aircraft to return by 2024. According to the CEO, the aircraft is a good aircraft and the airline has invested a lot of money into the type by installing new cabins in, so far, six of the twelve A380s in the fleet.
The last airline to speak about their A380s during CAPA Live was China Southern Airlines. One of the airline's VPs said that the company will conduct a review on the future of their five A380s. As China Southern is currently running only 10% of its international network, the A380 is often too big and too costly to operate. The airline currently uses the A380 mainly on flights to Los Angeles (CA), Melbourne, Sydney and Tokyo-Narita.
Not speaking at CAPA Live, but something that can be learned from the OAG Schedules Analyzer, is that a few other airlines are also plotting the return of the A380. Korean Air has scheduled flights as of June, Singapore Airlines and All Nippon Airlines from July onwards. The largest A380-operator, Emirates, has already been flying again with the A380 and has planned for more A380s to return in the coming months, especially from November onwards.
Photo by Anton Homma.