After spending almost a third of the year grounded, the Emirates fleet of Airbus A380 aircraft will return to the skies tomorrow. Emirates is the largest A380 operator. However, it will initially relaunch operations of the type with a much-reduced network.
The Airbus A380, while not the most popular from an airline perspective, has been a massive hit with passengers. Many from its vast fan base were worried that the current pandemic could lead to the death of the aircraft. After all, it has already led to Air France scrapping its entire fleet two years early. However, the type is safe for the time being.
Airbus A380s to Europe
Emirates will slowly reintroduce its Airbus A380 fleet from tomorrow. The airline is initially focusing on its highest demand routes, where it knows it could fill an A380. It wouldn’t be worth flying an A380 if demand would only fill a Boeing 777.
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As such, Emirates will initially focus its efforts on just two routes. This will see the giant of the skies flying to both Paris Charles De Gaulle and London Heathrow.
London was always likely to be one of the first to get the A380 as around a quarter of Emirates’ capacity before COVID-19 was on offer to and from the United Kingdom. Before the current situation, Emirates was operating several daily flights to Heathrow, Gatwick, and Stansted, in addition to other UK airports such as Birmingham.
The A380 is safe for now
While Air France has disposed of its entire A380 fleet at once, the Airbus A380’s future is safe for the immediate future. Emirates will become the second airline to use the type for scheduled passenger services since the height of the crisis. The other airline still operating the type is China Southern.
Emirates, and Dubai on a broader scale, would face huge issues if it just packed in the A380. The airline has over 100 of the model, with the type making up roughly half of its fleet. Given its vast capacity, the airline would lose over half of its capacity if it got rid of the type overnight.
There also arises the issue of the future. For starters, Airbus is already in the process of constructing its final nine Airbus A380s. Eight of these are due to go to the UAE airline.
Dubai is also in the process of building a brand new mega-hub airport halfway between its current airport and Abu Dhabi. This airport is being built around the A380 and has already been scaled down due to Airbus axing the type from its catalog last year.
Are you excited to see the Airbus A380 return to the skies tomorrow? Let us know where you want to see it fly next in the comments!
