Less than a week after Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa CEO, statements about the possibility of bring back the supejumbo to active service for the summer of 2023, the decision was made by the German flag carrier to bring a number of A380's to provide a much needed capacity amid a surge of travel demand.
Even though the return of the superjumbo is confirmed, the details about the number of aircraft and routes in which the aircraft will be deployed, are still not known yet.
On August 5th, 2021, Q2 briefing, Carsten Spohr, clearly stated that A380 will never come back. The last A380 (Reg. D-AIMH) was sent to Teruel for long storage. Everyone thought that this is the end for the German carrier's fleet of 14 A380's.
The details of the Airbus A380's return remains ambiguous for the time being. While the airline has confirmed that the giant of the skies will be back, but the specific details have not been revealed yet.
Lufthansa is still in the process of assessing the number of aircraft returning to service, which destinations these aircraft are going to fly, and last but not least the base airports in Germany.
It's understood that maximum of eight aircrafts may return. When the pandemic hit the globe, Lufthansa had 14 A380, but later on, the carrier revealed that six have already been sold.
As for the base airports, Lufthansa operates two main bases, Munich Airport (MUC) and Frankfurt Airport (FRA). The odds are that the returning A380s will be based in Munich. Even though Frankfurt is the busier airport, but it homes a fleet of Boeing 747s.
The question that will raise in many minds, is... Why? Why Lufthansa, after a strict statement from the CEO that A380s will never be part of Lufthansa future fleet, now the carrier is bringing it back?
With the recent fuel prices, these big birds that consumes huge amounts fuel would not be the logical choice to bring back to service. However, on the other hand, the world is witnessing a massive surge on demand for air travel that can not be contained in the available wide-body aircrafts. Same as Qatar Airways, it's the need for extra capacity to match the pent-up demand after two years of lockdowns and travel restrictions. Adding to this, the delay in delivering the newer Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the 777X to Lufthansa, who is the launching customer for the all new triple seven.
The Boeing 777X should have been delivered, and to be in service already at Lufthansa, but, fortunately for the A380, the delivery of the newer wide-body is not expected anytime before 2025.