Nearly all of British Airways’ 12 Airbus A380 superjumbos have been pulled out of long-term storage and are not back in service as the airline tries to keep up with a surge in travel demand over the summer.
Earlier this week, the double-deck aircraft returned to Chicago and Vancouver, and the British Airways A380 will finally make its debut in Dallas Fort Worth on July 1 after a four-month delay.
British Airways quickly grounded its A380s at the very beginning of the pandemic when travel demand plummeted but, unlike other airlines, BA took the unusual decision to keep its superjumbos close to hand in Madrid so that they could be quickly returned to service as soon as passenger demand picked up.
For British Airways, that time was in November 2021 when the airline initially returned five A380s to service. For the time first few weeks, the giant aircraft performed short-haul flights between London and Frankfurt for crew training purposes before returning to long-haul operations.
The airline has now returned nine of its A380s to service with the 469-seater aircraft routinely used on high-demand flights to Dubai, Miami and Los Angeles.
British Airways is now the only operator of the superjumbo because Lufthansa still hasn’t decided whether to reactivate its fleet of A380s after sending them into deep storage.
Lufthansa does, at least, still have the option of flying the A380 again. Air France offloaded its A380s at the height of the pandemic, although, the Paris-based carrier had already been planning a slow phase-out of the aircraft and the pandemic only hastened its end.
The A380 is, however, still going strong for Emirates with a total of 118 now in its fleet and “over half” in active service. Qatar Airways has also “reluctantly” returned its A380s to the skies, while Etihad Airways is still to make up its mind whether to reactive its superjumbos.
British Airways is currently working on a new interior design for its A380s after ex-Director of Brand and Customer Experience Tom Stevens described the current cabins earlier this year as “pretty old”.
Stevens said the A380s would soon be undergoing a refresh which will likely involve an upgrade to the Club Suite and new First Class seats.
Cabin crew have been involved in the new design in the hope that the layout will be configured in a way that removes some of the service challenges seen on other aircraft.
