ANA’s final Airbus A380 has finally completed its customer acceptance flight. The milestone means that, while a date is yet to be confirmed by the airline, the delivery of the giant of the skies is edging closer.
The Airbus A380 program is dead, a move that came as a sad blow to many. In February 2019, Airbus pulled the plug on new orders for the giant of the sky. Nine deliveries remain outstanding, one for ANA, and eight for Emirates.
However, Airbus has finished all of these aircraft’s fuselage assembly, meaning that no new airframes will now be built. The final A380 was expected to be delivered in 2021. However, deliveries seem to have stalled due to the current situation.
All Nippon Airways’ final aircraft is coming
All Nippon’s final aircraft has been in the works for quite some time. According to AIB Family, the aircraft took its first flight over a year ago on October 10th, 2019. As such, when ANA does finally take delivery of this aircraft, it will already be over a year old.
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The aircraft was initially expected to be delivered to the Japanese airline earlier this year. However, in May, Simple Flying reported that the aircraft’s delivery would be delayed by six months. Six months have now flown by. We’re at the position where the aircraft has completed its customer acceptance flight, as spotted by Twitter’s Clément Alloing, who reports that the aircraft is expected to be delivered at the end of the month.
2 Customer acceptance flight this morning ! Second #Airbus #A338neo #A330neo #9KAPG for @KuwaitAirways and our oranges turtles , 3th #Airbus #A380 for @FlyANA_official #JA383A #avgeeks #avgeek #A380lovers pic.twitter.com/mF1QskYysh
— Clément Alloing (@CAlloing) October 21, 2020
The flight departed Toulouse at 10:03. After a three hour and six minutes flight, the A380 landed back at its origin at 13:09.
On the topic of the delivery, an ANA spokesperson told Simple Flying,
“there was a customer acceptance flight for the A380, however, this is a separate procedure from the delivery, which is still under discussions with the aircraft manufacturer.”
ANA’s Airbus A380 fleet
The majority of the global Airbus A380 fleet is currently mothballed, waiting for passenger demand to return. Indeed, China Southern, Emirates, and most recently, Korean Air are the only airlines presently operating the type. This means that except for the odd flight to nowhere, ANA isn’t currently flying its pair of Airbus A380s, each sporting a slightly different turtle livery.
While most airlines fly their Airbus A380 aircraft on various routes, this is not the case will All Nippon Airways. Instead, the airline intends to operate the type between Tokyo and Honolulu exclusively. This appeared to be going well for the airline until earlier this year.
Given the current entry requirements in force for Hawaiian arrivals, the route suddenly became pointless for the airline overnight. As such, other than the odd flight, the two existing A380s have been grounded since March.
Are you excited to see ANA’s final Airbus A380 delivery inching slightly closer? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!