The A380, the four-engine superjumbo that has largely been written off as a not-right-for-the-times gas guzzler, is enjoying a surprising, though probably brief resurgence.
The past two years of aviation news have reported over and over how this airline was retiring its A380s, and that one was storing them without plans for using them again, and even how some were being scrapped. But these days, the story has turned to airlines that are flying them again, despite the limited number of routes where they make sense, and despite their appetite for aviation fuel.
The revival is based on a number of factors, including the remarkable recovery of passenger volume worldwide, now approaching 2019 levels, and in particular the demand on a number of high-density routes where airlines see the opportunity to move large numbers of passengers without increasing the number of flights and spreading their limited staffs too thin. Those factors work especially at airports which have had capacity limits, such as London Heathrow and New York JFK.
Among the airlines that have gone back on their plans to eliminate the type, at least for now, are Lufthansa, which sold off six of its 14 but will now use the remaining eight on routes from Munich to New York and Boston and British Airways, which will use its dozen to connect Heathrow to six U.S. cities. Among the Gulf carriers, Etihad has planned new routes as well.
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