China Southern Airlines ends E190 operations

Qantas, BA eye A380 return, China Southern cautious

British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) and Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) have said they expect their respective A380-800s to return to service going forward, while China Southern Airlines (CZ, Guangzhou) expressed a more reserved stance, indicating it would "review" the quadjet's future role.

During a CAPA Live webinar, British Airways' chief executive Sean Doyle stressed that his carrier had several routes where the A380 was still a perfect fit.

"We can fly it to many destinations. We flew it to places like Hong Kong Int'l and Johannesburg O.R. Tambo, it worked well in the markets like Boston. Even on the East Coast and Miami Int'l, we found that the A380 worked very well," he said.

However, Doyle underlined that the aircraft would not be reactivated until demand rebounds to the requisite level, which, he estimated, could happen in 2023 or 2024. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, British Airways operates twelve A380-800s, which are seven years old on average. Eleven units are owned by...

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Etihad Airways unlikely to reactivate A380s - Douglas

Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi Int'l) is set to join the ranks of airlines retiring its fleet of A380-800s due to the COVID-19 pandemic as it now considers it very unlikely that they would ever return to service.

"We have now taken the strategic decision to park the A380s. I'm sure it's very likely that we won't see them operating with Etihad again," Etihad Aviation Group Chief Executive Tony Douglas told The National newspaper.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, the airline operates ten A380-800s, which are 5.6 years old on average (the second-youngest in the world, behind ANA - All Nippon Airways) and are all owned by the carrier. They were all retired from revenue service in March 2020, as the global pandemic hit. Since then, four have been ferried to Lourdes/Tarbes for storage, while the remaining six aircraft remain at Abu Dhabi Int'l airport.

Out of the fifteen original A380 operators, Hi Fly Malta, Lufthansa, and Air France have already retired all...

China's Genghis Khan Airlines plots Ordos maintenance base