DLufthansa is reactivating the Airbus A 380 and will be using it again from the summer of next year. The group announced this. The reasons given are the sharp rise in demand for flight tickets and the delayed delivery of ordered aircraft. The company is currently examining how many machines of the wide-bodied aircraft, which completed its world’s first airport test in Frankfurt, will be used again.
Lufthansa currently has 14 Airbus A 380s, which are currently mothballed in Spain and France in so-called “deep storage”. Six of these aircraft have already been sold. Eight Airbus A380s will remain part of the Lufthansa fleet for the time being. Aircraft of this type still do not pose a particular challenge for Frankfurt, because the structural adaptations of the airport to the flying giants, which began in 2003, are still in use.
A380 yard continues to operate
This also applies to passenger bridges, which can dock on one of the two decks of the aircraft at the same time. A quick “turnaround” at the respective airport is also important for the profitable operation of an aircraft. This includes the entire procedure from getting on and off, loading and unloading, cleaning and refueling to leaving the parking position in the direction of the runway.
The hangar that Lufthansa built in the south of the airport area in order to be able to service the A380 fleet is still in use. In fact, it’s only half the yard that was completed in 2007. The second part, which was supposed to go into operation in 2015, was never built.
The A 380 is the largest passenger aircraft in the world: it is 73 meters long and 24 meters high and offers space for 509 passengers at Lufthansa. Apart from the reactivation, the Group will be strengthening its fleet with around 50 new Airbus A350, Boeing 787 and Boeing 777-900 long-haul aircraft and more than 60 new Airbus A320/321 over the next three years alone.
