Lufthansa’s super jet is back.
German airline put the first Airbus A380 back into service Thursday, a win back for a fleet once considered auspicious amid a bleak future for international travel.
The airline’s return flight for this massive biplane landed at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) after flying across the Atlantic from Munich Airport (MUC), before departing back home. return to Munich later in the evening.
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Now, three years after Lufthansa initially retired the A380 due to a drop in international flight activity related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline industry can barely keep up with the soaring demand for travel, even even have to choose to operate fewer flights to maintain operations. more reliable.
Especially for Lufthansa, which plans to grow capacity based on the development and delivery of new aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, current demand has created a predicament. Travel demand rebounded to pre-pandemic levels earlier than expected, but new aircraft deliveries were delayed due to growing supply chain problems — the airline needed a way to quickly replenish capacity for its network.
So just 3 years after saying goodbye to the A380, the German airline pull the palatial plane out of storage and put it back into service, starting on the Munich-Boston route.
Lufthansa will also add a biplane to its route between Munich and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) starting next month.
As the plane landed and rolled to its gate, Lufthansa and Boston Logan Airport employees watched from the ground, noting that this was the first time the German airline had brought its largest aircraft. to the New England airport. Although British Airways operates an A380 on one of its daily frequencies from Boston-London in the summer and Emirates flew an A380 to Boston before the pandemic, locals are still excited to see the machine Top flight landed in their city.
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Pictures and celebrations on the ramp and at the gate, along with short speeches in the lounge, closed the arrival of the carnival.
With airlines racing to add planes and pilots, some of the shutdowns since the peak of the pandemic in 2020 seem a bit hasty. United, for example, often notes that it has chosen not to ground any of its wide-body fleet, putting it in a strong position to capture resurgent demand in 2021 and 2022.
Lufthansa’s head of Americas, Dirk Janzen, hesitated to say that the original retirement plan was a mistake.
“At the time, with the knowledge we had, it was a reasonable decision,” Janzen told TPG in an interview at the event. “We didn’t expect demand to return at such a rapid rate.”
“If I could go back in time, yes, maybe, we wouldn’t pull it out,” he added.
Notably, the aircraft also has first class seats — only Lufthansa’s A340-600 and Boeing 747-8 offer first class in addition to business class — giving the airline a new opportunity to sell tickets. for affluent “high-end leisure” tourists. Market subsets have emerged and grown since the pandemic began.
“Premium entertainment is incredibly powerful,” says Janzen. “A lot of customers are willing to pay more to sit in premium economy, business or even first class. So that’s changed since COVID.”
Lufthansa’s A380s can carry 509 passengers across four cabins. Have eight first class seats78 business class seats, 52 premium economy class seats and 371 economy class seats.
Flight rating: Lufthansa first class on Airbus A380
Lufthansa will launch a new first class as part of it new Allegris cabin designset to Released later this year.
Lufthansa plans to have four A380s back in service by the end of the year, so there are plenty of opportunities to book flights if you want to take advantage of this second chance to fly the legendary double-decker jet.
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