First Airbus A380 that Lufthansa will reintroduce to scheduled commercial service arrived yesterday at Munich Franz Josef Strauss International Airport (MUC). The company is once again relying on the «Super Jumbo» to meet the demand for intercontinental travel during the summer season, as it expects deliveries of new wide-body aircraft to be delayed.
The aircraft, registered D-AIMK and named as «Düsseldorf», has remained in storage in Teruel, Spain, between May 2020 and December 2022. Since then, it has undergone maintenance and overhaul in preparation for its return to passenger operations. The work was carried out in Frankfurt and at Lufthansa Technik’s facilities in Manila, Philippines.
Yesterday morning, the aircraft departed Frankfurt am Main Airport (FRA) and arrived at Leipzig-Halle Airport (LEJ) after a two-hour overflight. After remaining on the ground for just over half an hour, it took off for the airport serving the Bavarian capital, the main base for Lufthansa’s wide-body Airbus fleet.
Lufthansa to bring A380 back into service after three years
Against the backdrop of a sharp drop in international travel, the airline took the decision to ground its largest capacity aircraft in 2020. However, the subsequent rapid recovery forced a rethink: in June 2022, Lufthansa confirmed that it was working to reintroduce its A380s.
The change of plans was also motivated by delays in the development of the Boeing 777X, a model that the company will introduce in the future to cover long-range, high-demand routes.
«Super Jumbo» returns to the United States
The A380 will return to scheduled service from 1 June: initially, the aircraft will operate between Munich (MUC) and Boston (BOS). The airline had already planned to use the type on this route before the pandemic began, but health restrictions meant that plans had to be postponed.
In addition, from 4 July, the aircraft will for the first time operate regularly between Munich (MUC) and New York (JFK). On both routes it will replace the Airbus A340-600, enabling the airline to increase its seat offering by around 80% and exceed 2019 levels. Lufthansa’s A380s can carry up to 509 passengers in a four-class interior configuration.
The company would take back four aircraft by the end of this year. All of them will be based in Munich and will mainly serve high-demand routes between Germany and the United States. In addition, it could reintroduce two more in 2024, although this has not yet been confirmed.
See also: Lufthansa resumes Airbus A380 operations with flights to the U.S.
