Goodbye A380: Air France retires super jumbo, while Qantas parks them until 2022

farewell to 380

Adieu A380. AirFrance retires its super jumbo fleet the news had been in the air for years the coronavirus accelerated the decision, however, and today, June 26, 2020, the transalpine airline's entire fleet is officially retired forever.

With a video, AirFrance celebrated the pivotal dates of the only double-decker plane ever produced, because it must be remembered the 747 has always had an upstairs lounge, which in the various versions from 1970 to 2010 got longer, but it was never comparable to the "upstairs" of the giant of the skies.

Conceived at the end of the last millennium, it was to become the beating heart of all airlines aiming at the strategy of airport HUBs capable of channeling direct passengers to every part of the world.

Designed to carry up to 800 passengers, but no company has dared so much, it was presented to the world in 2005, while the first airliner was delivered to Singapore Airlines two years later, and today that first plane has already been "dismembered."

The SuperJumbo came to market 10 years too late, too expensive, too little "fuel economy," and too large for many airports, which in fact had to adapt to accommodate it.

Designed to meet the needs of those supercrowded airports such as London Heathrow, where it is impossible to increase slots to land and take off, it was hit by the 2009 crisis and finally brought down by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many airlines, as is often the case, showed interest in the iconic Airbus-designed solution. Thanks to a never-before-seen surface area at 10,000 feet in height that allowed for real private apartments, such as Ethiad's residence, or showers for first-class customers on Emirates flights.

Impossible to forget how tycoon Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin, when ordering 6 A380s presented a concept that even included a casino complete with roulette, blackjack tables, and mini-disco.

In the reality of the facts, what decreed the end of the A380 was the huge production costs and the fact that none of the big 3 American companies decided to confirm letters of intent to purchase the aircraft.

In these pandemic days many airlines are hibernating A380s, especially those with "young" specimens, which if decommissioned after a few years would represent too great a budget loss.

For example, Australia's Quantas has announced that it has decommissioned its 747 fleet and prepared its A380 fleet, which has just had its interiors renovated with an investment of tens of millions of dollars, for hibernation as it waits for traffic levels to return to pre-crisis levels.

On the other hand, AirFrance's fleet consisted of only 4 aircraft, which were used for popular routes such as Paris-New York. The decision had already been made, too expensive to redo the interiors of the 4 planes, better to send them to the desert to be "dismantled" piece by piece.

At present, the only A380s in the skies are those of China Eastern (2 examples), used for domestic flights in China. Grounded, on the other hand, are the fleets of Emirates (more than 100 giants) and the other airlines such as Singapore, Lufthansa, Ethiad, Malaysian, and precisely Qantas.

Have you ever flown on an A380? What memories do you have of this giant of the skies? Leave a comment.

• A380
• Airbus