Virus could be final call for A380 superjumbo

Popular with air travelers but expensive to operate at the best of times, the gigantic Airbus A380 passenger plane could be one of the first major airplane casualties of the coronavirus.

Airlines including Lufthansa, Qantas and Air France have been grounding their superjumbos, at a time when a sharp drop in demand for air travel means many planes are flying close to empty.

The world’s largest passenger plane already had its cards marked – it was announced in 2019 that Airbus would stop deliveries of the A380 in 2021 – but the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 outbreak means superjumbo fleets are disappearing from our skies sooner than expected.

And, with numerous airlines said to be teetering on the brink of collapse, no one knows for sure whether they will ever return.

853-passenger capacity

German flag carrier Lufthansa led the charge in early March, making the decision to park its entire fleet of 14 A380s until at least the end of May, reported German aviation news site aero.de.

The mammoth double-decker craft has capacity for 853 passengers, although a typical seating arrangement means it usually carries 525.

Compare that to the 140-170 capacity of the Airbus A320, which last year overtook the Boeing 737 as the world’s best-selling airplane, and it’s clear to see why airlines are favoring the more fuel-efficient choice of a smaller plane.

According to an internal memo seen by aero.de, this month Lufthansa’s A380s had a load factor of just 35%, meaning the planes were going out with an average of just 180 passengers on board.

“Simple answer is that they are too big for current needs,” John Grant of AG Aviation Consultants tells CNN Travel.

“If airlines are going to maintain any schedules they need to match capacity to demand; that means in many cases smaller aircraft types and – as we are seeing – large frequency reductions.

“The A380 doesn’t fit that bill, especially when many airline operators require large proportions of transfer traffic from other countries. With countries being locked down it just does not make commercial sense, despite the cost of fuel currently being so low.”

Lufthansa’s fleet, which previously flew routes from Germany to Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco, as well as other destinations around the world, is currently parked up at its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.

Lufthansa aircraft pictured parked up at Frankfurt Airport on March 15.

The German carrier announced March 6 that it plans to reduce its flight program by up to 50% to deal with the financial consequences of the slump in demand.

Globally, airlines could be set to lose as much as $113 billion in sales due to the crisis, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Meanwhile, Sydney-based consultancy CAPA Centre for Aviation warned Monday that, without government assistance, most airlines worldwide will face bankruptcy by the end of May.

“Coordinated government and industry action is needed – now – if catastrophe is to be avoided,” CAPA said in a statement.

Expiry date looming

Australian flag carrier Qantas announced March 10 that it is grounding its eight of its 12 Airbus A380s until mid-September. With two of is A380s undergoing scheduled maintenance, there are just two left flying.

The airline says it’s reducing capacity by almost a quarter for the next six months, and is using smaller planes and reducing frequency of flights to maintain overall connectivity.

South Korea’s biggest airlines, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, are also grounding their A380s.

Air France is grounding its fleet of 10 superjumbos, reported aviation news site FlightGlobal on March 16. Back in 2018, the French carrier was one of the first airlines to announce plans to cut its A380 fleet.

With an expiry date already looming for the A380, there’s no guarantee that those grounded behemoths will ever take to the skies again.

World's largest passenger airliner: The double-deck, four-engine Airbus A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner, measuring close to 73 meters in length and holding as many as 853 passengers.

Assembly: From rivets and bolts, to seats and engines, an A380 is made up of about four million individual parts produced by 1,500 companies from 30 countries around the world. All the components -- including this fuselage -- must make the journey to the A380's Final Assembly Line (FAL) at the Aéroport Toulouse-Blagnac in France.

Six major components: The megajet's wings are built in Wales, fuselage sections come from Hamburg and France, the horizontal tailplane is made in Spain and the vertical tail fin is also manufactured in Hamburg.

Sea cruise: In Wales, the wings are shipped down the river from Broughton to Mostyn onboard the Afon Dyfrdwy barge. They are then transported onto Ciudad de Cadiz, one of three specially designed ships used by Airbus.

Substantial cargo: Meanwhile, a second ship sets off from Hamburg in Germany with the rear part of the fuselage. It heads to Saint-Nazaire in France to load the other parts of the center and forward fuselage, before traveling to the French town of Pauillac.

Voyage of the tail fin: While the six major components of an A380 are enjoying a sea cruise, the plane's vertical tail fin flies from Hamburg to Toulouse inside one of Airbus' A300-600ST Super Transporters.

A300-600ST Super Transporters: Better known as the Beluga, these colossal carriers are designed to transport oversized cargo -- but it can only accommodate the A380's vertical fin. The other sections are too large to travel by air.

Arrival in France: When the ships arrive at Pauillac, two barges (Le Breuil and Le Brion) pick up the components and then transport them to Langon.

Final voyage: The next section of the journeys is on road. Each major component is transferred to a specially designed trailer once it arrives at Langon.

Secure transmission: The convoy receives a police escort for the 240-kilometer journey to Toulouse on a secondary-road route that was modified to handle the extreme size of the A380's sections.

Special delivery: The journey sees the convoy pass through 21 towns and villages at a speed of 10 to 25 kilometers an hour.

Hero's welcome: The six sets of trailers and their tractors then travel through the town of Lévignac to the final assembly plant in Blagnac, Toulouse, where they are greeted by thrilled crowds.

How Airbus brings the parts of the A380 together

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World’s biggest fleet of A380s

Aviation news site The Points Guy reported Monday that this fresh batch of grounded craft makes up about a sixth of the A380s currently in service, with about 200 still in the air for superjumbo fans still to enjoy.

With a fleet of 115, Emirates is the biggest customer of the Airbus A380 and has eight of the craft still on order.

However even the craft’s biggest champion might be getting cold feet. The UAE airline is currently in discussions with Airbus to delay handover of those last few superjumbos, Bloomberg reports.

Opportunities may be fewer to fly in an A380, but it’s becoming a lot easier to buy one.

While the last published price list of an A380 was $445 million, the superjumbo’s value has been plummeting for some time, with the Covid-19 effect certain not to improve matters.

Valerie Bershova, valuations analyst at Ascend by Cirium, recently estimated that the market value of an A380 now ranges between $77 million for a 2005-build “half-life” aircraft and $276 million for a new 2019-build aircraft in “full-life” condition.

But 10 years from now, predicts Bershova, the spare-parts value of an A380 could be as little as $35 million.