The German flag carrier Lufthansa has confirmed it is to reactivate its Airbus A380 superjumbos despite the soaring price of jet fuel.
Lufthansa said on Monday they taken the decision to reactivate the quad-engined gas guzzlers after travel demand bounced back with the roll back of travel restrictions.
The airline said another major reason for why it had been forced to bring back the A380 because it was still doesn’t know when the next-generation Boeing 777X will be delivered.
The 777X or the 777-9 as it is otherwise known is due to be the flagship of Lufthansa’s fleet when it is finally delivered but Boeing does not now expect the aircraft to be ready until 2025 at the earliest. Lufthansa had originally expected to receive the first of it’s order in 2020.
With Boeing’s 787 Dreanliner program also on hold, Lufthansa has been left with no choice but to reactivate the A380 in order to meet demand.
Lufthansa could not say immediately how many A380’s it plans to bring back into service. The airline currently has a fleet of 14 A380s and all of them are in deep storage.
The airline had been rumoured to be planning to scrap at least six of them but no final decision was ever taken.
Lufthansa grounded its fleet of A380s at the start of the pandemic and has been toiling over making the business case for their return to work.
Although, Lufthansa admits that the double deck aircraft is popular with passengers and crew, they aren’t so popular with airline finance departments who want more fuel efficient twin-engined jets like at Airbus A350.
Passengers will have to wait, however, until next summer for Lufthansa to reactivate its A380s.
‘The company is currently assessing how many A380s will be reactivated and which destinations the Airbus will fly to,” a Lufthansa spokesperson explained.
Lufthansa frequent flyers were to first to find out the news after receiving an email from the airline.
It’s not only Lufthansa that has been in two minds about bringing back it’s A380s. Qatar Airways is flying its superjumbos again in order to fill a capacity crunch but chief executive Akbar Al Baker has made no bones about the fact that he wished the gas guzzlers were consigned to history.
Qatar only brought back its A380s after grounding at least 24 of its A350 fleet but Etihad Airways continues to mull the pros and cons of returning its A380s to the skies.
Both British Airways and Qantas haven’t had any concerns in bringing back their superjumbos while Air France decided to scrap its A380 fleet before travel restrictions were eased.
