Germany’s national airline, Lufthansa, is still reactivating its fleet of Airbus A380 wide-body planes. Recently, a second double-decker Airbus A380 super jumbojet was sighted departing long-term storage in Spain after nearly two years on the ground.
Lufthansa's third reactivated Airbus Airbus A380-84 (D-AIML) has returned back from long term storage at Teruel (TEV) to Frankfurt (FRA).
D-AIML will now carry out for training flights starting Saturday (22 April).
Flight https://t.co/7uF9yyCdTs
📹Aeropuerto de Teruel#a380 pic.twitter.com/fzVgATky0r
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) April 22, 2023
On April 21, 2023, the more than 9-year-old A380 airplane, registered D-AIML, the third reactivated Lufthansa A380, took off for the first time. Flightradar24.com’s flight history shows that the aircraft departed Teruel Airport (TEV) at 12 p.m. (UTC) on flight LH9922 to Frankfurt (FRA).
In May 2021, during the start of the global pandemic, the airplane was moved to Teruel Desert, one of the largest aircraft storage airports in Europe, for long-term storage.
After a three-year sabbatical, the first of Lufthansa’s two reactivated A380s arrived at Munich Airport (MUC) on April 12, 2023.
In response to the significant increase in passenger demand for air travel during the current summer season of 2023, the carrier chose to bring the wide bodies back.
The second factor that led to this decision was significant delays in the delivery of new aircraft.
Although Lufthansa operated 14 A380s prior to the outbreak, data from Planespotters.net shows that the German airline presently only has nine double-deckers in its fleet.
According to the airline’s plan, four of the type will be flown by Lufthansa out of one of its two primary home bases at Munich Airport (MUC) before the end of the year. Additionally, by the end of 2024, at least two super jumbos are anticipated to resume active passenger service.
The airline has already started selling tickets for long-haul flights on two of the earliest routes between Germany and the US that will be served by the revived wide-body aircraft.
On June 1, 2023, Lufthansa will begin service on the MUC-BOS route, as originally anticipated. In the meanwhile, JFK airport flights are scheduled to begin on July 4, 2023.
