The A380 has staged a remarkable comeback. (Photo: Simple Flying)
For lovers of this double-decked giant, it was a sad and concerning moment. Would we ever get to fly on the A380 again? Of course, Emirates is so wedded to the type it ultimately had no choice but to keep it in service, but what if we weren’t transiting through Dubai? It seemed as if the A380’s days were numbered in other parts of the world.
But 2022 has become a turning point in the superjumbo’s fortunes. Gradually, many more A380s have returned to service, firstly from the airlines we knew would eventually bring them back, like British Airways and Qantas, but later from airlines who had indicated they may never return, such as Lufthansa and Qatar Airways.
Qatar Airways has ‘reluctantly’ brought the A380 back into service. (Photo: Getty Images).
It seems the burgeoning pent-up demand for travel is necessitating the return of these huge capacity airplanes, as airlines look for ways to get more people where they want to go amidst limited ground handling and airport capacity. Our friends at Spire Global, a data and analytics company that collects data from space to solve problems on Earth, has shared their tracking data to help us visualize the A380s return over the past 12 months.
Diversity returns
In the weeks between May 1st and July 11th, 2021, Spire Aviation tracked all flights operated by Airbus A380s around the world. By far the biggest operator was Emirates – no surprise there – with 3,347 flights in that time period. The only other airline with significant A380 flights was China Southern with 377. All other airlines had just a handful of A380 operations.
Fast forward to 2022 and, during the same time period, the diversity of the A380s in service has changed significantly. Emirates has more than doubled its A380 ops, with 8,594 flights tracked. But its share of the A380 activity globally has diminished significantly.
A380 flights by Airline in 2021 and 2022. (Photo: sprite)
Back in the air are British Airways, Singapore Airlines, and Qatar Airways, all operating around 1,000 flights with the Airbus superjumbo. Qantas is back on the map as well, while Korean and China Southern take somewhat smaller pieces of the pie.
Overall, the number of A380s in service has grown dramatically in just one year. In 2021, Spire tracked fewer than 100 A380s in total, while now, in 2022, the number operating is nearing 150. Love it or hate it, the A380 has proven that it will take more than COVID to wipe it out.
Routes return
As well as diversity in operators of the A380, we can also see from the Spire Aviation data that the destinations being touched by the type had multiplied too. In the period May 1 to July 11, 2021, just 39 destinations saw A380 service. Unsurprisingly, a lot of those originated in Dubai, although China Southern was also relatively busy with its fleet too.
A380 operations in 2021 and 2022. (Photo: sprire)
In the same period in 2022, the destinations served have almost doubled to a total of 65. We can now see robust operations with the A380 out of London, Doha and Sydney, alongside the usual Dubai flurry.
Places devoid of A380 activity are seeing the type once again. Notably, India, Southern Africa, and South America did not see any A380s in the specified period of 2021. In 2022, several of these destinations are back, as are many more in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Cre: Simple Flying
Nguyen Xuan Nghia – COMM
