Lufthansa confirmed that it will return its fleet of Airbus A380s to active service in the next couple of years.
According to a report by aeroTELEGRAPH, citing sources familiar with the matter, Lufthansa decided to return all eight of its double-deckers to service after unprecedented demand for air travel pushed the airline to add more seats to its network.
The airline’s spokesperson confirmed the development to the publication, adding that the Airbus A380 has been “extremely popular with both our customers and the crews”.
The spokesperson added that all eight will be stationed at Munich Airport (MUN), one of Lufthansa’s key hubs in Germany. The aircraft are expected to return between 2024 and 2025, according to the airline’s representative.
Currently, Lufthansa operates three Airbus A380s, registered as D-AIML, D-AIMM, and D-AIMK. However, the latter was ferried from MUC to Frankfurt Airport (FRA) on August 30, 2023, on flight LH9924, and has remained inactive ever since.
Another Lufthansa A380, registered as D-AIMN, was ferried to Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL), the Philippines, for maintenance.
“A380 #4 (D-AIMN) is scheduled to begin service from Munich in late October 2023, followed in 2024 by aircraft #5 and #6 ([D-AIMH] & [D-AIMC]), a Lufthansa representative said a in an email to AeroTime. They added that D-AIMA and D-AIMB will “be integrated into the fleet between 2024 and 2025”.
Both D-AIMC and D-AIMH activated their transponders on August 9, 2023, which resulted in them showing up on the flight tracking service flightradar24.com.
The type was returned to active service by the airline in June 2023, when it completed a flight between MUC and Boston Logan International Airport (BOS).
During the group’s 2022 results presentation in March 2023, Lufthansa said six Airbus A380s should be operational in the airline’s fleet by 2024.
“To expand its capacity and in view of delays in the delivery of new long-haul aircraft combined with high demand, Lufthansa German Airlines is reactivating its A380 fleet,” the airline said in its H1 2023 results presentation in August 2023.
In total, Lufthansa operated 14 Airbus A380s prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once the demand for international travel plummeted in March 2020, the airline retired all 14 of the aircraft, placing them into long-term storage at either Tarbes–Lourdes–Pyrénées Airport (LDE), France, or Teruel Airport (TEV), Spain.
Lufthansa has since sold six Airbus A380s, which the airline said had a book value of €287 million ($321.2 million) when presenting its H1 2023 results.