Lufthansa reactivates the first Airbus A380 after almost 3 years

On December 2 Lufthansa reactivated the first Airbus A380 of its fleet, which is registered with the registration D-AIMK and christened «Düsseldorf«, after being stored since May 5, 2020, according to the website Planespotters.

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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the German airline was forced to ground its entire fleet of superjumbos, because of border closures and sanitary restrictions worldwide.

The «Mike Kilo» performed ferry flight LH 9921, which took off from Teruel Airport (TEV) at 16:05 local time bound for Frankfurt (FRA), after which the aircraft will go to Lufthansa Technik’s Manila facility for maintenance.

The company also plans to reactivate the D-AIML, D-AIMM and D-AIMN aircraft in the coming months. The A380s will return to commercial service for the 2023 boreal summer season, the airline has not yet officially announced which hub they will be based at and which routes they will operate.

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Prior to the pandemic, Lufthansa had a fleet of fourteen superjumbos operating to its most important destinations in the United States and Asia-Pacific, the company already sold six units to Airbus, the remaining four A380s will still be kept in storage at Teruel (TEV).

Due to the increase in passenger demand, the opening of several markets in Asia-Pacific, the delay of Boeing 777-9 deliveries and the lack of aircraft, Lufthansa had the need to reactivate the superjumbos to meet its schedule for the upcoming high passenger season.

Lufthansa’s A380s seat 509 passengers in four classes (8 First Class/78 Business Class/52 Premium Economy/371 Economy) and were previously the company’s flagship aircraft.

Latest routes operated by Lufthansa’s Airbus A380s in the 2019/2020 winter season

• Frankfurt (FRA): Bangkok (BKK), Delhi (DEL), Los Angeles (LAX) and Singapore (SIN).
• Munich (MUC): Miami (MIA), San Francisco (SFO) and Shanghai – Pudong (PVG).

See also: Lufthansa announces the return of its Airbus A380