Seven years after first making them available to the market, Malaysia Airlines is considering returning its A380s to Airbus as part of the agreement to take delivery of 20 new A330-900s signed in August.
This information was disclosed yesterday by Kuala Lumpur’s The New Straits Times newspaper quoting sources close to the matter, who detailed that «the plan is for Airbus to receive all the A380s by the end of this year» and that «it is up to them what they want to do with the aircraft», but that negotiations are still ongoing.
Both Malaysia and Airbus commented that the terms of the A330neo agreement are confidential, although the airline did indicate that it plans to permanently retire the A380s from its fleet by the end of 2022.
In June, reports The New Straits Times, Malaysia Airlines CEO Izham Ismall had said that the A380 was no longer in the carrier’s plans and that going forward it is all about the twin-engine widebodies. «If you want to be competitive, you can’t put an A380 in play because the operating cost is high,» Ismall said.
«There is no doubt that the product on the A380 is superior, but at the end of the day it all comes down to profit and loss,» he added.
Malaysia Airlines was the first carrier to launch its A380s on the second-hand market in May 2015. While the giant already seemed to have its years numbered at the time in the face of airlines’ advancing preference for twin-engine wide-body aircraft, Malaysia’s decision was more informed by the serious economic situation it was going through, aggravated after the two tragedies it had suffered just a year earlier (the disappearance of flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean and the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine). At that time, the company was carrying debts of more than 1.5 billion dollars and the restructuring plan involved cutting 30% of its workforce.
Malaysia Airlines took delivery of its first A380 in May 2012, completing the order for six units in March 2013. They have a configuration of 412 seats in Economy, 66 in Business and 8 in First.
They were primarily used on routes linking Kuala Lumpur to Paris and London, but the six aircraft were deprogrammed from scheduled service following the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.
Malaysia Airlines Group’s current fleet consists of:
- 6 Airbus A350-900s, which are on average four years old, covering its flights to London, Auckland and Tokyo.
- 21 Airbus A330s, which have an average age of 11 years, serve destinations in Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam.
- 43 Boeing 737-800s, which have an average age of 10 years, covering its domestic routes and 23 international destinations.
In addition to the 20 A330neo ordered in August, the company has an order for 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and MAX 10s to be delivered between 2024 and 2026 to replace its Boeing 737 NGs.
